RESUMEN
With high fatality and no cure, chronic wasting disease (CWD) has infected cervids in multiple regions, including the United States, Canada, Europe, and South Korea. Despite the rapid growth of literature on CWD, the full scope of its ecological, social, and economic impacts and the most effective and socially acceptable management strategies to mitigate the disease is unclear. Of 3008 initially identified published peer-reviewed papers, 134 were included in a final systematic literature review to synthesize the current knowledge on CWD transmission patterns, impacts, and the effectiveness of management interventions. The number of publications on CWD has increased steadily since 2000 with an average of six papers per year. Most papers were related to CWD prevalence (39 %), human behavior (33 %), CWD impacts (31 %), and management interventions (16 %). Environmental factors such as soil, water, and plants were identified as the most common transmission medium, with a higher prevalence rate among adult male cervids than females. Hunters showed a higher risk perception and were more likely to change hunting behavior due to CWD detection than non-hunters. Ecological impacts included the decreased survival rate accompanied by lower population growth, eventually leading to the decline of cervid populations. Culling was found to be an effective and widely implemented management strategy across countries, although it often was associated with public resistance. Despite potentially high negative economic impacts anticipated due to CWD, studies on this subject were limited. Sustained surveillance, ongoing research, and engagement of affected stakeholders will be essential for future disease control and management.
RESUMEN
A lingering challenge in implementation of ecosystem-based planning is translating high-level conservation objectives to discrete management initiatives. Recent research underscores this, emphasizing the importance of the processes by which plans are developed and how programs to implement plans are delivered to stakeholders. This study contributes to the existing program design, research methodology, and conservation practice literature through an assessment of landowner and conservation practitioner relationships in the Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks (GCPO) region of the southern U.S. The study utilizes online and mail surveys to gather data on landowner interactions with conservation practitioner organizations and interactions between practitioner organizations themselves. Data from the surveys suggest different patterns of interaction as reported by landowners and those reported by practitioner organizations working in the region, with landowners generally interacting more with extension and industry organizations and conservation practitioners interacting more with state and federal agencies. Key informant data also allows for analysis of the conservation practitioner network in the GCPO region. Resulting analysis suggests a well-connected network among the state and federal organizations critical to development and delivery of conservation programs in the GCPO LCC region. Though such configurations may be beneficial for the diffusion of innovative practices across a network, they may nonetheless require continued efforts to coordinate activities at the regional scale, an important component of practice-driven, ecosystem-level management.