[Environment] WILDCOMS-Wildlife Disease & Contaminant Monitoring & Surveillance Network
Lead Research Organisation:
NERC CEH (Up to 30.11.2019)
Department Name: Shore
Abstract
Disease and contaminants both pose major risks to wildlife and Man. This is well recognised and there are a variety of surveillance schemes in the UK that monitor wildlife for occurrence and severity of diseases and/or contaminants. These schemes complement rather than duplicate each other but share many operational procedures and so can face similar challenges. The information gathered from each surveillance scheme is communicated to a wide spectrum of end users.
The various surveillance schemes are run by different government agencies and laboratories, research centres, institutes and Universities. The funders of the schemes are an equally diverse range of government departments, agencies and industry. A key difficulty caused by this myriad of researchers and funding organisations is that it hampers communication between schemes. The schemes only have opportunistic and ad hoc mechanisms to exchange knowledge or develop common best practices that would facilitate sharing of samples and data. Such cooperation can also be hampered by differences between funders in the priorities that they wish surveillance schemes to address. Furthermore, because each scheme reports its findings largely in isolation, it is difficult for end users to obtain an overview of common or widespread threats.
The main aim of this project is to establish a Wildlife Disease & Contaminant Monitoring & Surveillance (WILDCOMS) network. This will provide a partnership between nine current UK contaminant and disease surveillance schemes. The network will foster and facilitate knowledge exchange, harmonisation towards best practice, collaboration and sharing of resources. It will also enhance and widen communication with and between end-users, and in particular will provide end-users with an holistic overview of environmental disease and contaminant risk. This should make identification of emerging hazards and risks easier and quicker to spot, and provide the more integrated scientific evidence base needed to formulate better and timely policy and regulation.
The specific objectives, delivered in four work packages, will be:
(i) to establish and develop the network through regular partners meetings
(ii) to use the network to maximise communication of integrated surveillance information to a wide range of end-users through an annual Stakeholder Forum and through collation of findings from all schemes into web-based quarterly bulletins
(iii) development towards harmonised operational procedures (sample collection, measurement, data recording and sample archiving) that will facilitate sharing and collaboration between schemes and eliminate duplication of effort
(iv) to develop a sustainable model for WILDCOMS and extend its scope to a European scale through linkage with key European partners and networks
WILDCOMS will thus facilitate sharing of skills, expertise, knowledge, samples and data, thereby maximising the use of available resources. This will result in better value for money overall and foster development of new initiatives.
The benefits the network will deliver can be summarised as:
(a) ntegrated surveillance leading to an improved scientific evidence base with which regulators and policy makers can assess threats to wild vertebrates and human health
(b) better long term management, sharing and dissemination of samples, best practice and data
(c) a recognised forum that will facilitate discussion and collaboration between surveillance schemes and different end-users and stakeholders
(d) an enhanced UK research base by increasing knowledge through scientific publications and greater awareness of activities and specimen archives
(e) benefits for industrial end users including potential for averting costs by preventing problems
(f) benefits to quality of life to the through improved risk assessment
The various surveillance schemes are run by different government agencies and laboratories, research centres, institutes and Universities. The funders of the schemes are an equally diverse range of government departments, agencies and industry. A key difficulty caused by this myriad of researchers and funding organisations is that it hampers communication between schemes. The schemes only have opportunistic and ad hoc mechanisms to exchange knowledge or develop common best practices that would facilitate sharing of samples and data. Such cooperation can also be hampered by differences between funders in the priorities that they wish surveillance schemes to address. Furthermore, because each scheme reports its findings largely in isolation, it is difficult for end users to obtain an overview of common or widespread threats.
The main aim of this project is to establish a Wildlife Disease & Contaminant Monitoring & Surveillance (WILDCOMS) network. This will provide a partnership between nine current UK contaminant and disease surveillance schemes. The network will foster and facilitate knowledge exchange, harmonisation towards best practice, collaboration and sharing of resources. It will also enhance and widen communication with and between end-users, and in particular will provide end-users with an holistic overview of environmental disease and contaminant risk. This should make identification of emerging hazards and risks easier and quicker to spot, and provide the more integrated scientific evidence base needed to formulate better and timely policy and regulation.
The specific objectives, delivered in four work packages, will be:
(i) to establish and develop the network through regular partners meetings
(ii) to use the network to maximise communication of integrated surveillance information to a wide range of end-users through an annual Stakeholder Forum and through collation of findings from all schemes into web-based quarterly bulletins
(iii) development towards harmonised operational procedures (sample collection, measurement, data recording and sample archiving) that will facilitate sharing and collaboration between schemes and eliminate duplication of effort
(iv) to develop a sustainable model for WILDCOMS and extend its scope to a European scale through linkage with key European partners and networks
WILDCOMS will thus facilitate sharing of skills, expertise, knowledge, samples and data, thereby maximising the use of available resources. This will result in better value for money overall and foster development of new initiatives.
The benefits the network will deliver can be summarised as:
(a) ntegrated surveillance leading to an improved scientific evidence base with which regulators and policy makers can assess threats to wild vertebrates and human health
(b) better long term management, sharing and dissemination of samples, best practice and data
(c) a recognised forum that will facilitate discussion and collaboration between surveillance schemes and different end-users and stakeholders
(d) an enhanced UK research base by increasing knowledge through scientific publications and greater awareness of activities and specimen archives
(e) benefits for industrial end users including potential for averting costs by preventing problems
(f) benefits to quality of life to the through improved risk assessment
Organisations
- NERC CEH (Up to 30.11.2019) (Lead Research Organisation)
- Zoological Society of London (Collaboration)
- Animal and Plant Health Agency (Collaboration)
- Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (Collaboration)
- Fera Science Limited (Collaboration)
- UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (Collaboration)
- Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) (Collaboration)
- UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH (Collaboration)
- Zoological Society of London (Project Partner)
- Fera Science (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Project Partner)
- Environmental Sustainability KTN (Project Partner)
- Scottish Agricultural Science Agency (Project Partner)
- Cardiff University (Project Partner)
- Animal and Plant Health Agency (Project Partner)
- Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Project Partner)
Publications
| Description | Summary of the existing practices of the partner schemes in WILDCOMS. As part of the planned activities of the WILDCOMS network, one of the work packages (Best practice guidelines and increased operational harmonisation) focused on increasing harmonisation, collaboration and efficiency of resource utilisation. This is related primarily to operations that are common to all partners' schemes, namely 'sample collection and processing'; 'necropsies and recording'; and 'specimen archiving'. In the first instance, the main objective was to compile an inventory of 'Sample Collection and Processing' amongst the WILDCOMS partners. This has now been done and can be accessed through the WILDCOMS website. It comprises four main areas: i) a general overview of the partner's schemes (including information about what is collected and why), ii) a description of the contaminant classes that are analysed by each scheme, iii) a list of the analysed contaminants and iv) an inventory of the disease screening techniques employed by the different schemes. In summary, WILDCOMS began with nine partner schemes which had expanded to 11 schemes by 2015. Each scheme has a dedicated website. Schemes have been running for different lengths of time with the most recent set up 2 years ago and the oldest running for approximately 50 years. Some schemes are very specific to a certain type of vertebrate taxa, such as birds of prey or fish, whereas others cover a wide range of taxa. The number of taxa analysed in each scheme is a function of the scheme's main aims. These aims include general exposure monitoring for contaminants and pesticides, post-registration monitoring of mortalities associated with pesticides, and disease surveillance and monitoring. The geographical spread of monitoring also varies between schemes; four analyse samples from throughout the UK, two are restricted to Scotland, two to England and three to England and Wales. Sampling in most, but not all, schemes is responsive, which means samples are found and collected opportunistically either by members of public or by scheme members; planned sampling is conducted by two schemes, both focussed on fish. The samples that are collected range from specific tissues to whole animal. All the schemes archive samples to some extent. All schemes that undertake chemical analysis measure a wide range of compounds. These include legacy persistent organic pollutants such as organochlorine insecticides and PCBs, replacement flame retardants, trace and toxic metals, rodenticides and a variety of current-use pesticides. The number of compounds within each contaminant class that is analysed varies between schemes. For instance, 8 schemes measure insecticides and, in total across all these schemes, 115 compounds are determined. This means that, within the WILDCOMS network, there is the capacity and expertise to analyse a wide range of contaminants of concern for vertebrate wildlife and also the potential for the exchange of samples amongst the different schemes to quantify different contaminants according to need. Six of the WILDCOMS partners screen for diseases and between them examine amphibians, reptiles, fish, mammals and birds. As in the case of contaminants, schemes screen for a wide variety of diseases and carry out studies that range from gross pathology to virology and -omics. General diagnostic tests, gross pathology and parasitology are carried out by all five schemes whereas other, more specific tests, are carried out by fewer schemes. The second inventory that was compiled related to the necropsies [and associated data recording] conducted by each surveillance scheme. This information has been compiled into an Excel workbook that can now be accessed and downloaded from the WILDCOMS website where it is held under the "Project Outputs" tab. The workbook contains the source of the material analysed by each scheme, the criteria for examination, species type, the aim and type of post-mortem examination, specialist procedures and links with other schemes, among others. The third and final inventory that has been compiled relates to "specimen archiving". This information has been gathered into an Excel workbook that can now be accessed and downloaded from the WILDCOMS website where it is held under the "Project Outputs" tab. The inventory contains data concerning the species, organs, etc, data each scheme archives as well as information on the number of historical archived samples, starting date of archives and the planned storage time. This inventory provides an important database of sample repository in the UK. As a result of the formation of the WILDCOMS partnership, there is greater sharing of samples to enhance overall the UK screening of contaminants and disease. Progress towards this is described in the policy impact statement for this grant. |
| Exploitation Route | Details available on the web to all. Our mailing list, which alerts subscribers to the publication of summary information on the website, has grown to over 600 by 2018, a rise of more than 100 in the last two years |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Environment,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://www.wildcoms.org.uk/content/news |
| Description | The formation of the WILDCOMS network has facilitated an increase in collaboration between its partner schemes that are involved in chemical and disease monitoring and surveillance at the UK scale. This increased collaboration has increased the scope and value of existing activities at no extra cost. This was one of the key objectives behind forming WILDCOMS. Details are given in the "collaborations and partnerships" tab. Beneficiaries: Research schemes that are partners in WILDCOMS, policymakers (Defra, Health & Safety Executive (HSE) who have responsibility for biocides regulation in the UK, Countryside Agencies) and wildlife NGOs who fund the schemes and use their information in policy and decision making and to underpin regulatory actions. In particular, there has been: (i) combined reporting of rodenticide residues in red kites and provision of that information to the Government Oversight Group that reviews the outcomes of the Anticoagulant Rodenticide stewardship, a requirement for continued usage of these products. See https://www.hse.gov.uk/biocides/eu-bpr/rodenticides.htm for further details ii) continued provision of samples for testing for avian influenza, part of the UK surveillance for this potentially zoonotic disease iii) continued provision of samples for testing for Trichomonosis, part of the UK surveillance for this disease which may be a key risk factor for avian wildlife species |
| First Year Of Impact | 2016 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Chemicals,Environment,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Economic |
| Description | Data on rodenticides in red kites submitted to Governmnet Oversight Committee for Stewardship of Anticoagulant Rodenticides |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Impact | Data are used as part of key monitoring data to assess the impact of stewardship on the risk that anticoagulant rodenticides pose to wildlife. Formal review of 5 years of data will be in 2020-2021 |
| Description | Impact on Defra gathering of scientific evidence to underpin policy |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| Impact | WILDCOMS has been highlighted in the new Defra evidence strategy "Making the most of our evidence: A strategy for Defra and its network" as a key mean of providing scientific evidence to underpin improved regulatory policy for chemicals. |
| URL | https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/evidence-strategy-for-defra-and-its-network |
| Description | Policy Impacts of WILDCOMS |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| Impact | The WILDCOMS network has been highlighted by Defra as one of the indicator tools to assess the UK's sustainable use of pesticides. |
| URL | https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/221034/pb13894-nap-pestici... |
| Description | Provision of information to Natural England |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in other policy documents |
| Impact | UK-wide effort to understand contaminant exposure of vertebrates such as fish and otters through the WILDCOMS (Wildlife Disease & Contaminant Monitoring and Surveillance) network; |
| URL | https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/577216/2_NE_Chief_Scientis... |
| Description | Annual monitoring of rodenticide residues in red kites (2017 onwards) |
| Amount | £45,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Natural England |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2017 |
| Description | Development of a potential post-registration pesticide monitoring scheme |
| Amount | £60,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Natural England |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2018 |
| End | 03/2020 |
| Description | Systematic use of contaminant data from apex predators and their prey in chemicals management |
| Amount | € 2,012,047 (EUR) |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | 09/2018 |
| End | 08/2022 |
| Title | Flame reatradants in otters from England and Wales |
| Description | Flame retardants in the livers of the Eurasian otter collected from Scotland between 2013 and 2015 (PBMS). Data are held in CEH data catalogue |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Data informs the Environment Agency of [potential risk to higher trophic wildlife from use of these replacement flame retardants in the UK |
| Title | inventory of national sample collection and processing for wildlife surveillance |
| Description | As part of the planned activities of the WILDCOMS network, one of the work packages (Best practice guidelines and increased operational harmonisation) focused on increasing harmonisation, collaboration and efficiency of resource utilisation. This is related primarily to operations that are common to all partners' schemes, namely 'sample collection & processing'; 'necropsies and recording'; and 'specimen archiving'. In the first instance, the main objective was to compile an inventory of 'Sample Collection & Processing' amongst the WILDCOMS partners. This has now been done and can be accessed through the WILDCOMS website. It comprises four main areas: i) a general overview of the partner's schemes (including information about what is collected and why), ii) a description of the contaminant classes that are analysed by each scheme, iii) a list of the analysed contaminants and iv) an inventory of the disease screening techniques employed by the different schemes. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This is the first time information on all sampling activites for all national surveillance schemes have been gathered together. It has resulted in increased sharing of samples between surveillance schemes and with other researchers |
| URL | https://wiki.ceh.ac.uk/display/wildcomsweb/Sample+collection+and+processing?atl_token=c25ea48a106213... |
| Title | inventory of necropsy practices |
| Description | As part of the planned activities of the WILDCOMS network, one of the work packages (Best practice guidelines and increased operational harmonisation) focused on increasing harmonisation, collaboration and efficiency of resource utilisation. This is related primarily to operations that are common to all partners' schemes, namely 'sample collection & processing'; 'necropsies and recording'; and 'specimen archiving'. We have compiled an inventory that contains information about the post mortems carried by the WILDCOMS schemes and the provenance of the samples. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Provides a key resource to researchers as to what samples are collected from wildlife corpses across different surveillance schemes and are available for wider use |
| URL | https://wiki.ceh.ac.uk/display/wildcomsweb/Necropsies+and+Recording?atl_token=c25ea48a106213d9633a1a... |
| Title | inventory of sample archives |
| Description | As part of the planned activities of the WILDCOMS network, one of the work packages (Best practice guidelines and increased operational harmonisation) focused on increasing harmonisation, collaboration and efficiency of resource utilisation. This is related primarily to operations that are common to all partners' schemes, namely 'sample collection & processing'; 'necropsies and recording'; and 'specimen archiving'. We have compiled an inventory that contains information about the specimen archiving carried by the WILDCOMS schemes and mad this available as a doenloadable excel spreadsheet on the internet |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This is the first time information on sampling archiving activities for all national surveillance schemes have been gathered together and can be accessed by researchers. It has resulted in increased interst in the use of samples by different urveillance schemes and with other researchers |
| URL | https://wiki.ceh.ac.uk/display/wildcomsweb/Specimen+archiving?atl_token=c25ea48a106213d9633a1a4557e2... |
| Description | Disease and contaminants in red kites |
| Organisation | Fera Science Limited |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Sharing of results, ongoing development of database so that data accumulated from the different organisations can be easily accessed. Collation of the national picture for the UK on rodenticide poisoning in the UK now used as information for the UK Government Oversight Group for anticoagulant rodenticide stewardship in the UK |
| Collaborator Contribution | Pathololgical investigations at IoZ and Scottish Raptor Health Study, red kite livers sent to CEH or Fera/SASA for AR analysis; suspected poisonings to FERA/SASA (WIIS Scotland), non-poisonings to PBMS. Resultant data now recombined and reported as an overview |
| Impact | PBMS rodenticide reports published on PBMS website; http://pbms.ceh.ac.uk/content/pbms-reports Red kite poisoning incidents published in WIIS quarterly update reports (http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/guidance/industries/pesticides/topics/reducing-environmental-impact/wildlife/WIIS-Quarterly-Reports.htm). Conference paper: Monitoring toxins in rare and reintroduced species: the red kite. Richard Shore. Given at "SYMPOSIUM ON HEALTH AND DISEASE IN TRANSLOCATED WILD ANIMALS" , 14 MAY 2015, Institute of Zoology, London https://www.zsl.org/sites/default/files/media/2014-11/Health%20and%20Disease%20in%20Translocated%20Wild%20Animals%20symposium_Programme.pdf Database currently being developed for open access publication |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | Disease and contaminants in red kites |
| Organisation | Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Sharing of results, ongoing development of database so that data accumulated from the different organisations can be easily accessed. Collation of the national picture for the UK on rodenticide poisoning in the UK now used as information for the UK Government Oversight Group for anticoagulant rodenticide stewardship in the UK |
| Collaborator Contribution | Pathololgical investigations at IoZ and Scottish Raptor Health Study, red kite livers sent to CEH or Fera/SASA for AR analysis; suspected poisonings to FERA/SASA (WIIS Scotland), non-poisonings to PBMS. Resultant data now recombined and reported as an overview |
| Impact | PBMS rodenticide reports published on PBMS website; http://pbms.ceh.ac.uk/content/pbms-reports Red kite poisoning incidents published in WIIS quarterly update reports (http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/guidance/industries/pesticides/topics/reducing-environmental-impact/wildlife/WIIS-Quarterly-Reports.htm). Conference paper: Monitoring toxins in rare and reintroduced species: the red kite. Richard Shore. Given at "SYMPOSIUM ON HEALTH AND DISEASE IN TRANSLOCATED WILD ANIMALS" , 14 MAY 2015, Institute of Zoology, London https://www.zsl.org/sites/default/files/media/2014-11/Health%20and%20Disease%20in%20Translocated%20Wild%20Animals%20symposium_Programme.pdf Database currently being developed for open access publication |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | Disease and contaminants in red kites |
| Organisation | University of Edinburgh |
| Department | Royal School of Veterinary Studies |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Sharing of results, ongoing development of database so that data accumulated from the different organisations can be easily accessed. Collation of the national picture for the UK on rodenticide poisoning in the UK now used as information for the UK Government Oversight Group for anticoagulant rodenticide stewardship in the UK |
| Collaborator Contribution | Pathololgical investigations at IoZ and Scottish Raptor Health Study, red kite livers sent to CEH or Fera/SASA for AR analysis; suspected poisonings to FERA/SASA (WIIS Scotland), non-poisonings to PBMS. Resultant data now recombined and reported as an overview |
| Impact | PBMS rodenticide reports published on PBMS website; http://pbms.ceh.ac.uk/content/pbms-reports Red kite poisoning incidents published in WIIS quarterly update reports (http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/guidance/industries/pesticides/topics/reducing-environmental-impact/wildlife/WIIS-Quarterly-Reports.htm). Conference paper: Monitoring toxins in rare and reintroduced species: the red kite. Richard Shore. Given at "SYMPOSIUM ON HEALTH AND DISEASE IN TRANSLOCATED WILD ANIMALS" , 14 MAY 2015, Institute of Zoology, London https://www.zsl.org/sites/default/files/media/2014-11/Health%20and%20Disease%20in%20Translocated%20Wild%20Animals%20symposium_Programme.pdf Database currently being developed for open access publication |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | Disease and contaminants in red kites |
| Organisation | Zoological Society of London |
| Department | Institute of Zoology |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Sharing of results, ongoing development of database so that data accumulated from the different organisations can be easily accessed. Collation of the national picture for the UK on rodenticide poisoning in the UK now used as information for the UK Government Oversight Group for anticoagulant rodenticide stewardship in the UK |
| Collaborator Contribution | Pathololgical investigations at IoZ and Scottish Raptor Health Study, red kite livers sent to CEH or Fera/SASA for AR analysis; suspected poisonings to FERA/SASA (WIIS Scotland), non-poisonings to PBMS. Resultant data now recombined and reported as an overview |
| Impact | PBMS rodenticide reports published on PBMS website; http://pbms.ceh.ac.uk/content/pbms-reports Red kite poisoning incidents published in WIIS quarterly update reports (http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/guidance/industries/pesticides/topics/reducing-environmental-impact/wildlife/WIIS-Quarterly-Reports.htm). Conference paper: Monitoring toxins in rare and reintroduced species: the red kite. Richard Shore. Given at "SYMPOSIUM ON HEALTH AND DISEASE IN TRANSLOCATED WILD ANIMALS" , 14 MAY 2015, Institute of Zoology, London https://www.zsl.org/sites/default/files/media/2014-11/Health%20and%20Disease%20in%20Translocated%20Wild%20Animals%20symposium_Programme.pdf Database currently being developed for open access publication |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | Scottish Raptor Health Study |
| Organisation | University of Edinburgh |
| Department | Royal School of Veterinary Studies |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The Scottish Raptor Health Study is a Scottish surveillance scheme assessing the health of Scottish raptors and using them as indicators of ecosystem health http://www.ed.ac.uk/vet/raptor-health-scotland. The project performs post mortem examinations on all Scottish raptor birds submitted to look at factors contributing to their death and examines live raptor chicks for health assessment. Samples originating from these two sources undergo bacteriology, parasitology, virology and toxicology testing. The Scottish Raptor Health Study has joined the WILDCOMS network and, by through dong so, has enhanced sample sharing with other WILDCOMS partners, namely the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme and the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme - Scotland run by Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA), a Division of the Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate. Submission of carcasses from Scotland are directed to the Scottish Raptor Health study and samples are then shared between the study and the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme and the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme - Scotland |
| Collaborator Contribution | The Scottish Raptor Health Study has joined the WILDCOMS network and, by through dong so, has enhanced sample sharing with other WILDCOMS partners, namely the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme and the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme - Scotland run by Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA), a Division of the Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Directorate. Submission of carcasses from Scotland are directed to the Scottish Raptor Health study and samples are then shared between the study and the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme and the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme - Scotland |
| Impact | just started. Ouputs and outcomes still to be delivered |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Screening of Avian Trichomoniasis in birds |
| Organisation | Zoological Society of London |
| Department | Institute of Zoology |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Provision of samples of birds of prey that are suspected of suffering trichomonosis |
| Collaborator Contribution | Analysis of samples for trichomonosis |
| Impact | Improved GB screening for trichomonosis at no extra cost as a result of PBMS providing samples into the screening programme |
| Start Year | 2013 |
| Description | Sharing of samples and data with WIIS |
| Organisation | Fera Science Limited |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Sharing of samples between partner schemes in WIlDCOMS, and specifically between CEH (for the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme) and both FERA and SASA for the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme. This collaboration has been facilitated through the WILDCOMS network through development of the network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | each scheme has shared samples, post-mortem and chemical analysis data with each other so that information can be used by the different schemes run by the partners |
| Impact | Additional data available for reports fromth edifferent schemes and additional archiving of bird tissues in the PBMS national tissue archive |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | Sharing of samples and data with WIIS |
| Organisation | Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Sharing of samples between partner schemes in WIlDCOMS, and specifically between CEH (for the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme) and both FERA and SASA for the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme. This collaboration has been facilitated through the WILDCOMS network through development of the network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | each scheme has shared samples, post-mortem and chemical analysis data with each other so that information can be used by the different schemes run by the partners |
| Impact | Additional data available for reports fromth edifferent schemes and additional archiving of bird tissues in the PBMS national tissue archive |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | Sharing of samples and data with WIIS |
| Organisation | UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Sharing of samples between partner schemes in WIlDCOMS, and specifically between CEH (for the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme) and both FERA and SASA for the Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme. This collaboration has been facilitated through the WILDCOMS network through development of the network. |
| Collaborator Contribution | each scheme has shared samples, post-mortem and chemical analysis data with each other so that information can be used by the different schemes run by the partners |
| Impact | Additional data available for reports fromth edifferent schemes and additional archiving of bird tissues in the PBMS national tissue archive |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | Sharing of samples between collection schemes |
| Organisation | Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Collection and sharing of tissue samples for archiving and analysis for disease screening |
| Collaborator Contribution | Collection and sharing of tissue samples for archiving and analysis for the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme |
| Impact | Increased availability of samples for multiple contaminants and disease screening and surveillance schemes |
| Start Year | 2013 |
| Description | Sharing of samples between collection schemes |
| Organisation | Zoological Society of London |
| Department | Institute of Zoology |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Collection and sharing of tissue samples for archiving and analysis for disease screening |
| Collaborator Contribution | Collection and sharing of tissue samples for archiving and analysis for the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme |
| Impact | Increased availability of samples for multiple contaminants and disease screening and surveillance schemes |
| Start Year | 2013 |
| Description | enhancement of screening for West Nile virus and Usutu Virus |
| Organisation | Animal and Plant Health Agency |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | WILDCOMS has facilitated the linkage of one of its partner schemes, the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme (PBMS), with the Animal and Plant Health Agency (AHPA) such that samples collected by the PBMS for contaminant monitoring are shared with AHPA to supplement the current extent of West Nile Virus screening in wild birds in the UK. This has in recent years also been extended to screening for Usutu Virus. In 2018, more than 100 bird samples were submitted to APHA |
| Collaborator Contribution | Screening of all samples for West Nile Usutu viruses |
| Impact | data feed into the reports generated by the GB Wildlife Disease partnership and are posted on http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140707135733/http://www.defra.gov.uk/ahvla-en/publication/wildlife-survreports/ |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | screening of samples for avian influenza |
| Organisation | Animal and Plant Health Agency |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Swabbing of predatory bird carcasses for recording presence of avian influenza during the outbreak in 2016-17 and subsequently |
| Collaborator Contribution | Screening of swabs for avian influenza to provide added information of prevalence of AI amongst wild bird populations |
| Impact | Results on Avian Influenza (AI) in wild birds are reported in the quarterly reports of GB wildlife disease surveillance produced by the GB Wildlife Disease Surveillance Partnership (see URL above). They include detection of AI in some of the predatory birds sampled by the Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme and provided to the Animal and Plant Health Agency, as part of the WILDCOMS partnership networking. This collaboration enhances UK ability to characterise the extent of , and risk from, AI in wildlife |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Title | Refresh and updating of WILDCOMS website |
| Description | Updating and refresh of WILDCOMS website |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | Continuation of high level f website hits/google prominence and growth of subscription list for newsletters |
| Title | WILDCOMS website |
| Description | This website describes the activities of WILDCOMS and has two key features (i) a quarterly newsletter that includes a "spotlight" feature that provides a holistic overview of risks and threats posed by specific contaminants and disease. Topics featured in 2012-13 were "Wildlife and Zoonoses"; "Emerging Hazards and Risks, "Rodenticides" and a "Summary of existing practices of the partner schemes in WILDCOMS" In 2013-14 they were "Mercury (Hg)", "Monitoring activities in Scotland" and "Citizen Science"; (ii) news items relevant to surveillance monitoring for contaminants and disease. The list of national and international stakeholders that receive alerts so that they can download the newsletters continues to grow and is 2017 almost 600. The website was revamped in 2016. |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2011 |
| Impact | The website varies in terms of numbers of hits but these can be as high as 600 per day Types of beneficiary include: Independent Research Organisation;Industrial/Commercial;Research Council/Institute;Public Research Organisation;Government Department;Academic Institution;Local and regional Government |
| URL | http://www.wildcoms.org.uk/ |
| Description | Article in CIEEM |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Article on WILDCOMS activities, aims and outputs in "inpractice", the Bulletin of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Conference paper given at the 28th Vertebrate Pest Conference in Rohnert Park, California in 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Invited conference presentation at the 28th Vertebrate Pest Conference in Rohnert Park, California on the comparative accumulation of liver SGAR residues by different birds of prey and what this can tell us about relative risk to different species. The work was conducted in collaboration with PBMS partners in the WILDCOMS network. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Defra Landscapes feature on WILDCOMS |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | An online article featuring WILDCOMS appears on Defra Landscape. The article was entitled "Wild things. New partnership creates a 'one-stop-shop' for monitoring disease among wildlife." This led to greater awareness among the Defra family of WILDCOMS and its partners activities and to invitations to link more closely with the GB Wildlife Disease Surveillance Scheme and its component activities |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Feature on British Society for Parasitology webiste |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | he WILDCOMS network has been featured in the News and Events pages of the BSP website. Greater awareness among researchers for the work of the partner schemes in the WILDCOMS network |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | http://www.bsp.uk.net/news-and-events/news/wildcoms-monitoring-disease-and-contaminants-in-uk-verteb... |
| Description | First stakeholder engagement meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The first full stakeholders' meeting was held in London in November 2012. This meeting was attended by one or more representatives from the Pesticides Forum, Environment Agency, various departments from within the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Animal Health Veterinary Laboratories Agency and Natural England. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Natural Histroy Museaum stand in Universities week |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Staff from several of the WILDCOMS network combined to work with Cardiff University's Project Splatter stand at the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London from the 9th to 13th June. The stand had a touch table (with feathers, skulls and bones to touch and otter stomach samples to look at), a video of what eats wildlife roadkill, an interactive map showing what has been splattered and spotted and lots more. More than 100 universities were involved in Universities Week 2014, 45 of whom were at the Natural History Museum, attracting an estimated 28,000 visitors across the week. There was engagement on Twitter and Facebook and national and regional media coverage, including the Independent on Sunday, the Daily Mail, London Live, the Guardian and packages across six ITV regions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Newsletters (3-4 per year) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Newsletters are distributed to an international contact list of approximately 600 researchers, policymakers and regulators. It describes activities under the WILDCOMS project, news from the partner schemes, and focuses on a particular aspect of chemical and disease surveillance or on particular contaminants, providing a short holistic summary of associated risk WILDCOMS has been contacted by a number of researches asking for more detail, information, or help in providing advice over unusal disease reports, or contaminant risk |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020 |
| URL | http://www.wildcoms.org.uk/content/newsletters |
| Description | Planet Earth blog |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Planet Earth Blog entitled Corpses needed for environmental assessment. This blog article, arising because of the dissemination activities of WILDCOMS, highlighted to the academic and wider research community the citizen science monitoring work of various of the WILDCOMS partners and how individuals could contribute to the work. The article also outlined the overall aims of WILDCOMS Types of beneficiary include: Research Council/Institute;Government Department;Academic Institution Greater awareness of work of WILDCOMS partners and how to support the surveillance schemes by sending in carcasses |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| URL | http://planetearth.nerc.ac.uk/blogs/post.aspx?id=1037&pid=337&cookieConsent=A |
| Description | Poster to Society of Environmnetal Toxicology and Chemistry |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Poster presentation at SETAC resulted in discussions with fellow researchers and profesionals about surveillance monitoring Has led to adoption of approaches used by WILDCOMS elsewhere (as recognised in the paper Gómez-Ramírez P. et al., 2014. An overview of existing raptor contaminant monitoring activities in Europe. Environment International 67 12-21. DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2014.02.004. The valuue of WILDCOMS type approaches for surveillance networks also recognised as key means for delevoping surveillnace methods for pharmaceuticals in the environmment, as recognised by Shore et al. 2014. Detection and drivers of exposure and effects of pharmaceuticals in higher vertebrates. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 369 20130570. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0570 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Presentation given to Defra's Chemical Stakeholder Forum |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation attended by all the CSF, sparked interst from members and resulted in questions of how WILDCOMS could interact with Industry and help implement REACH Greater engagement with regulators and direct funding to one of the surveillance schemes, partly to help maintain the WILDCOMS network into the futureor |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Presentation to Defra's to Wildlife Disease Surveillance Partnership |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Outcome led to further discussions on collaboration between WILDCOMS and the GB Wildlife Disease Surveillance Scheme Greater collaboration-sharing of contact lists, increased sharing of samples between partner schemes of WILDCOMS and GB Wildlife Surveillance Schemes |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Presentations to SEPA and SNH |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Presentation given to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) about the networking activity of WILDCOMS, the chemical monitoring activity of its network partners, and how surveillance monitoring can inform the Scottish State of the Environment reports. Led to renewed dialogue about funding surveillance work between some WILDCOMS partners and both SEPA and SNH. Some partner schesm in WILDCOMS now directly funded by SEPA and SNH and outputs from partner schemes inform the Scottish State of the Environmnet webpages and reports |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Scottish stakeholder meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The second full stakeholders' meeting was held in Edinburgh in November 2013. This meeting was attended by one or more representatives from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA), Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Scottish SPCA), The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC-Scotland), the Wildlife Management Branch of Scottish Government and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH). The meetings were successful in raising awareness of the individual monitoring schemes and the WILDCOMS network with stakeholders and in gathering feedback from those stakeholders as to the best way to disseminate information to them quickly and efficiently |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Third national stakeholder meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The third full stakeholders' meeting was held in Cardiff in January 2016. This meeting was attended by one or more representatives from the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales, Welsh Government, academics and practitioners from various Universities (Cardiff, Exeter), the Animal Health Veterinary Laboratories Agency and Natural England. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | WILDCOMS at the Mammal Society |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | A presentation on the WILDCOMS network was given by Richard Shore at the 58th Spring Conference & AGM of the Mammal Society which was held on the 10th and 11th of March at the University of Greenwich. This talk sparked questions following the presentation and follow-up visits to the WILDCOMS website Members of the Mammal Society used the WILDCOMS forum to engage in reporting and discussion of disease and contaminant incidents in wildlife |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | WILDCOMS talk to the British Veterinary Zoological Society |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Talk given was entitled 'Wildlife disease surveillance in GB: an overview of the GBWDSP and WILDCOMS partnerships and some component projects (KEYNOTES) and the purpose was to increase awareness of wildlife disease surveillance in the UK, how this is carried out (including the role of the WIKLDCOMS network) and how professional practitioners can become involved |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | article in International Innovation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The WILDCOMS network has been highlighted through an article in International Innovation. This is a leading global dissemination resource for the wider scientific, technology and research communities, dedicated to disseminating the latest science, research and technological innovations on a global level. International Innovation has global circulation to policymakers, regulators and academics The article explains how a novel collaborative project is facilitating dissemination of research on potential threats to UK wildlife. Provided targetted outreach to disseminate information about WILDCOMS. Article triggered a number of enquireis about the network |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | https://wiki.ceh.ac.uk/download/attachments/205554024/p92-94_WILDCOMS.pdf?version=1&modificationDate... |