Fact Sheets

Wildlife Health Australia’s Fact Sheets contain brief, factual information on a wide range of diseases, both infectious and non-infectious, that impact Australian wildlife and feral animals. Information focuses on implications of disease for free-ranging native wildlife, although impacts on humans, domestic and feral animals are included to provide a One Health perspective. Diseases of relevance to Australian wildlife that are exotic to Australia, or zoonotic (transmitted from an animal to a human) are also included. There are also several Fact Sheets on topics of general interest to wildlife health.

Wildlife Health Australia welcomes your feedback on Fact Sheets. Please email admin@wildlifehealthaustralia.com.au. We would also like to hear from you if you have a particular area of expertise and are interested in creating or updating a WHA Fact Sheet. A small amount of funding is available to facilitate this.

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All

Angiostrongylus and Australian wildlife - Nov 2019

Angiostrongylus cantonensis, the rat lungworm, occurs in introduced rats and can cause neurological disease in mammalian and bird hosts. It is a zoonosis. Marsupials and flying-foxes are highly...
Open

Anthrax in Australian wildlife - Sep 2016

In Australia, anthrax is primarily considered a disease of livestock. There is no evidence of anthrax infection of wild or free-ranging animals in Australia. However, given its host range, anthrax...
Open

Antimicrobial resistance and Australian wildlife - May 2024

Antimicrobial resistance is recognized as an issue of emerging global importance. Antimicrobial resistance is a One Health challenge and impairs effective treatment of bacterial and other...
Open

Arboviruses associated with Australian wildlife - May 2024

At least 75 arboviruses have been reported in Australia, most of them transmitted by the bites of mosquitoes and 13 arboviruses are considered zoonotic (a disease transmitted from animals to...
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Cryptosporidium infection in Australian wildlife - Jan 2023

Cryptosporidium spp. are protozoal parasites that infect a range of vertebrate hosts including mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and amphibians, causing predominantly gastrointestinal...
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EXOTIC - Nipah and other exotic henipaviruses - Apr 2024

Henipaviruses have a wide host range, and some henipaviruses cause serious disease and death in humans and domestic animals. Nipah virus and Hendra virus are considered highly...
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Giardia infection in Australian wildlife - Jan 2023

Giardia is a genus of flagellate protozoa within the family Hexamitidae that infects the gastrointestinal tract of vertebrate animals (Ryan and Zahedi 2019). Eight Giardia species have...
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Infectious diseases of biosecurity concern in Australian wildlife - Oct 2021

This fact sheet summarises information on infectious diseases in Australian wildlife that carry biosecurity concerns. While we do our best to keep our fact sheets up to date, due to the rapidly...
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Melioidosis in Australian wildlife - Apr 2024

Melioidosis is caused by infection with the bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei. It is endemic to tropical areas of Australia and southeast Asia. It has a high fatality rate in susceptible animals...
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Rodenticide toxicity in Australian wildlife - Feb 2023

There are increasing reports of toxicities associated with rodenticide exposure in Australian wildlife, including birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians. Effects of rodenticides have been studied...
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Wildlife Health Australia aims to link, inform and support people and organisations who work with or have an interest in wildlife health across Australia through technical advice, facilitation, communications and professional support.