WILDLIFE VETERINARY SERVCICE (WVS)

This division addresses long-term conservation needs by providing veterinary expertise in managing free living wildlife.

Its main objectives are;

• To take part in preventive measures on disease outbreaks by creating an immune belt around the protected areas by vaccinating livestock.

• To take part in wild disease diagnostic processes, disease investigation and disease control operations of free ranging wildlife.

• To conduct routine health monitoring operations through disease surveillance, surveys and disease impact assessment.

• To mitigate the problem of wildlife overabundance through suitable reproductive control measures and wildlife translocation operations.

• To take part in wildlife translocation operations undertaken for the purpose of reintroduction, restocking and managing problem animals.

These goals can be achieved through outreach grants given to individuals and organizations for conducting immunization program around protected areas. Through MVS units stationed in protected areas where there is need for wildlife health support or through the involvement of veterinarians registered under the network of wildlife rehabilitators and veterinarians (WREN).

Other issues that falls under the Wildlife Veterinary Service purview;

Wildlife health support:

Role of parasites and pathogens need particular attention in the present day environment of habitat encroachment, disturbance and fragmentation. This is more so in India , where there are more than 250 million livestock. The impact of disease on animal populations has also been predicted to increase over the next 50 years because of higher contact rate between wildlife and human activities. At higher contact rate there will be higher transmission rate and higher morbidity and mortality. Therefore there is a need to protect wildlife populations by providing wildlife health support through preventive, health monitoring, disease diagnostic, disease investigation, disease control and disease impact assessment operations.

Conservation translocation:

Most wildlife populations are surrounded by cultivation and human habitations, providing conservationists no option of establishing even wildlife corridors. Moreover, most of these populations survive in protected areas which are already fragmented. There may be a case to manage such populations intensively by translocating animals, either as individuals or in groups, to maintain the genetic viability of the isolated groups. In the distant future, this could also involve the transfer of genetic material as rehabilitation of translocated animals may not be always possible considering their behavioral requirements and habitat availability.

Problem animal management:

Incidence of animals, in groups or as individuals, straying into human habitations due to various reasons is also not uncommon. Veterinary expertise is required in such instances for capture and translocation of such `problem’ animals and the control of overabundance by adopting the suitable reproductive control measures.