Save a Cat, Save a Life

Big cat conservation groups and the Mount Sinai Medical center are teaming up to change human perception of big cat species--and save human lives.

A new program, developed by the New York based conservation group Panthera in collaboration with the Mount Sinai Medical Center, will train “doctor conservationists” in the human-health benefits of saving wild predators. In Central and South America where jaguars are known as cattle killers, the species is not only at risk of being hunted, but also of declining genetic health as their habitats shrink and populations are cut off from each other. A decline in top-level predators can lead to a boom in prey populations. Scientists have found a direct correlation in this cascade effect and an increase in zoonotic diseases, or diseases spread animal to human. HIV, West Nile virus, and avian flu are examples of zoonotic diseases that have existed in the environment but have been kept in check until relatively recently.

The goal of the program is to integrate the concept of conservation and its human-health benefits into medical training. The students will then have opportunities to practice in parts of the world where humans and wildlife live in close contact. The doctor-conservationists will also work to educate the local communities on the importance of tolerating jaguars and other predators. Another goal of the program is to boost efforts to establish “genetic corridors”, or paths of protected habitats that cross human-populated areas and connect wildlife preserves. Panthera’s Jaguar Corridor Initiative would potentially link about 90 distinct jaguar populations in Central and South America, and the Tiger Corridor Initiave would attempt to do the same in Southeast Asia. Panthera and other conservation groups stress the importance of maintaining genetic diversity in predator species.

Posted by Jane de Verges (week 2)

Update
In response to several comments, I found some background information about zoonotic diseases.

Zoonotic diseases are passed from animals, wild or domestic, to humans. Diseases passed from humans to animals are called reverse zoonotic. In early human history, zoonotic diseases posed little threat because early humans lived in mostly isolated groups. Because of this, epidemic diseases often burnt out after the first generation of illness because the population affected would develop an immune response. The diseases we may think of as epidemic are actually zoonotic diseases (like the plague!). There is also good evidence that influenza, measles, smallpox, and diptheria originated in other species. Another interesting note: for many "human" diseases, the human is actually an accidental victim as well as a dead end host (this is the case for rabies, anthrax, and west nile virus.) Malaria and Elephantiasis are technically not considered zoontic, because although they are transmitted by insects, the human host is part of the disease's life cycle.

A note on HIV: HIV is believed to have evolved from the closely related Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV), and transferred from chimps to humans in the early 20th century. Scientists disagree on exactly where and how this occurred.

Another piece of related information I found interesting: In 2000, researchers discovered that there are no subspecies of jaguar. From Southwestern U.S. to Argentina, all jaguars are the same. There is no other large carnivore like this. Jaguars require a very unique conservation model. Click here for a map of the Mesoamerica Jaguar Corridor project, from Panthera.org.

Posted by Jane de Verges, 2/20/2009