Disease and dogs as threats to the endangered Ethiopian Wolf (Canis simensis)
1998
Fekadu Shiferaw (Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Organization, Addis Abeba (Ethiopia)) | Laurenson, Karen | Zubiri, Claudio Sillero
The Ethiopian Wolf, endemic to Ethiopia, is the rarest and most endangered canid in the world. Less than 400 individuals now remain in six isolated populations. In this paper we outline the threat that disease may pose to wolves in Bale Mountains national Park, the largest remaining wold population and present an assessment of the current situation. Wolf numbers in BMINPdropped from 400 in 1990 to 120-160 in 1996, with a rabies epidemic and possibly canine distemper underpinning this decline. Thirty percent of wolves sampled between 1988 and 1992 were seropositive to canine distemper virus (CDV), 10 seropositive to canine parvovirus (CPV) and 67 seropositive to canine adenovirus (CAV). These results suggest that canine adenovirus may be endemic in the species but that epidemics of rabies, CDV and CPV probably spillover from domestic dogs that live both in and around Ethiopian wolf range. An epidemiological survey of domestic dogs in 1996 revealed that the incidence of rabies in dogs, livestock and humans in very high in the area adjacent to the BMNP (estimated annual incidence of 0.83-2.71 humans and 940-3160 dogs per 100,000), and that CDV, CAV and CPV may also be endemic in the domestic dog population. Dog populations were estimated at 15 km minus 2 squared in rural areas adjacent to the BMNP or 1.5 dogs per household and were male baised. A programme to vaccinate dogs against these pathogens in now being conducted in and around BMNP to reduce the threat of disease to this Ethiopian wolf population and to examine whether wildlife are a reservoir of these viruses. We are also surveying the threat the domestic dogs and disease pose to the other remaining small Ethiopian wolf populations.
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