HYBRID APPROACHES TO ZOO INFECTIOUS DISEASE SURVEILLANCE

Abstract

Surveillance of infectious diseases in zoos is rather significant in the aspect of maintaining animal health, safeguarding human health, and biodiversity conservation.  In this paper, the author proposes an integrative surveillance, which would employ behavioural monitoring, quantitative physiologic data and diagnostic screening on 180 of the zoo animals, including giraffes, lions, chimps and penguins.  The data was presented in the form of nine elaborated tables and twelve complex figures.  The findings indicated that chimpanzees and penguins were found to possess the most unusual behaviours and they could detect pathogens such as Salmonella, E. coli, and Influenza.  A.  Giraffes were least variable in physiological measurements whereas behaviour and temperature in lions varied a bit.  Line and bar graphs were used to indicate the changes in body temperatures as well as the number of time that the species were observed and pie charts indicated the prevalence of particular infections.  Findings indicated that the links between the behavioural problems and pathogen alarms were significant according to scatter plots and hybrid visualizations.  This system combined a number of components to identify health threats in a proactive time and to optimize the intervention windows through monitoring of things in real-time and prioritizing the risks.  Analysis reveals that hybrid surveillance is an evolutionary and expandable method of performing zoo epidemiology. It deploys the smart technologies and work processes in other sectors to bridge the linkages between animal health and ecological surveillance.  This data promotes mixed surveillance methods in zoological networks to be used as a component of an expanded health effort, One Health.