Endangered Birds Need Your Support

According to the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, there are currently 543 plant and animal species at risk in Canada

There are health threats to wildlife in Canada and worldwide, with spill over to people and domestic animals, but Canada has been ahead of the

pack in planning, preparedness and active stewardship of wildlife health.

Work Done So Far

The Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre (CCWHC) is Canada’s health care system for wildlife focused on healthy wildlife populations, healthy ecosystems and human wellbeing. Founded in 1992, the CCWHC unites all five of Canada’s veterinary colleges with the public and all levels of government in an ambitious program to find, investigate and manage wildlife health issues. The CCWHC has set the international standard for such national programs and has forged new private-public partnerships to make it happen.

The CCWHC has handled issues large and small. We were there to find, assess and mitigate botulism in water birds on the prairies and the Great Lakes, Chronic Wasting Disease in wild deer, West Nile Virus and Avian Influenza in wild birds, Viral hemorrhagic Disease and Koi  Herpesvirus in wild fish, and White Nose Syndrome in bats, and to find the health issues behind declines of threatened species such as the St Lawrence Beluga, Eastern Loggerhead Shrike, Piping Plover, Nova Scotia Moose, and Sage Grouse.

There is still work to do

Through the CCWHC, Canada has set a high standard for national wildlife health programs, but is the standard high enough?  Wildlife health issues are growing in number and importance, and our capacity to investigate these problems and seek solutions is falling short of our national needs. Many wildlife health concerns do not receive adequate attention.

The health of wild fish is largely ignored. We are still a long way from following Canada’s National Wildlife Disease Strategy of 2005, a policy shaped by the CCWHC and recognized around the world for its foresight and completeness.

Diseases affect one of Canada’s most valuable natural resources – wildlife. The Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre (CCWHC) applies the veterinary medical sciences to wildlife conservation and management in Canada.

You can help to continue the success story.

Canada has been remarkably successful in bringing together its wildlife and veterinary institutions and expertise to track and solve wildlife health issues, uniting wildlife conservation with the health sciences as never before.

We now need to expand our capacity to meet national needs and obligations for stewardship. We need better vigilance for wildlife health problems and better ways to measure of wildlife health. We need stronger investigative teams with the resources to respond quickly. We need better communications to inform Canadians and recruit citizen scientists to participate.

The annual resources required to expand CCWHC programs to meet Canada’s needs include:

• To Track and Manage the Health of Terrestrial Wildlife: $ 6,000,000
• To Track and Manage the Health of Wild Fish: $ 2,000,000
• To Train Wildlife Health Specialists: $ 500,000
• For Research on Priority Wildlife Health Issues: $ 1,000,000
• For communication and outreach: $ 500,000

Donate

Your donation to the CCWHC program can make a real difference to the health of Canada’s wildlife. Your support will:

•  Assure the highest level of vigilance for wildlife health threats
• Assure fast and thorough investigations of wildlife health problems
• Find the best solutions to wildlife health issues
• Empower Canadians to be effective stewards of wildlife health
• Support the students who will be the next generation of wildlife health experts