The silent wildlife killer

[Music]

did you know

that one third of zambia’s landmass is

protected

and reserved as conservation areas

these areas are characterized by

beautiful landscapes

and charismatic wildlife that are an

epitome of wildlife safari

and tourism through tourism

the local people benefit from jobs but

also

the government collects considerable

amount of revenue

apart from tourism all the plants

the animals and the microbes in this

area

interact in a complex manner to form

what is referred to

as an ecosystem and these ecosystems

provide ecosystem services

and these ecosystem services are so

important

for the survival of man and the planet

some of the ecosystem services include

the provision of clean water

did you know that the entire city of

lusaka’s water supply

comes from the cafe river and the large

part of that river

is conceived in these conservation areas

part of the carbon that we emit from our

cars and industries

is trapped and absorbed in a large

expanse of forests

and plants thereby mitigating the

effects of climate change

a lot of effort and energies have been

invested

by the government the conservation

community

and the local people to preserve these

areas

from exploitation and degradation

and the biggest rates to these areas

approaching

and habitat loss through human

development

these threats are addressed by a model

of law enforcement through the use of

armed rangers

these rangers risk their lives defending

these animals

and their homes ionically

they face danger from the same animals

that they’re trying to protect

but also more importantly they there’s

an

ever-present risk of being shot in gun

exchange

with the poachers and this model has

caught

measurable success in bringing the

culprits to book

but also limiting the effects of

poaching

however there are other potential

threats

that this model does not address and

that threat

is the threat of infectious diseases

the idea that wildlife and biodiversity

is the source and origin of new and

emerging infections

diseases is merely stating the obvious

where else would the new pathogen come

from

it is not that their mechanism of

transmission

is in any way unnatural but it is rather

the opportunities for the emergence that

are changing

and probably on the increase

these threats these opportunities

are driven by man and human development

and not wildlife these opportunities

are due to the increase in human

population

that forces us to go into wildlife areas

and cut huge chunks of land for the

purpose of agriculture

to feed our growing population

it is the increase in exploitation and

trade

in wildlife and wildlife products that

lays these opportunities bare

our interaction the ease of travel

at global scale presents the

opportunities

for the spread of these diseases

as the case of ebola and kovid

let me give a few examples to

demonstrate the devastating effects

of infectious disease on wildlife

populations

in 1994 in the serengeti national park

of tanzania

one third of the lion population died

from canaan december it’s an infectious

disease

of domestic dogs you can just imagine

this

one third of that population represented

1 000 lions

when you go to the kruger national park

the buffalo population

today is devastated

by bovine tuberculosis this is a disease

of cattle

and the threat is not only on the

buffalo population

but the predators that feed on these

buffalos

it is feared that in the near future we

might lose the entire lion population

in the kruger national park

the ethopian wolf is on the brink of

extinction

because of rabies and canada in december

diseases

of domestic dogs

let me draw your attention to zambia

the kaffir flat a semi-aquatic antelope

species

only found in zambia

on the cafe flats has had this

population

dropped from 80 000 in the 1980s

to just over 20 000 in 2018

a drop of about 70 percent loss

and this drop is due to poaching

and infectious disease and the two

infectious disease implicated

in this population in the demand in the

decline of this population

is bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis

also referred to as contagious abortion

so bro so bovine tb is a chronic

debilitating disease

that affects adult animals and the

studies done

on the cafe floods have shown that 25

percent of the later population

is already infected with this

pathogen brucellosis

also referred to as contagious abortion

this disease is a reproductive disease

that stifles the population to grow

from birth and one

in every four laters is already infected

with this the combined

effects of these two diseases has

already been demonstrated

on the kafwa flats one of the species

that was originally found on the cafe

flats is now locally extinct

the blue wilderness is no more on the

kaffir flats

this is the biggest conservation story

of our times in zambia today

but this is not the first local

extinction to happen in zambia

the longwood valley was host to over 12

000 black rhinos

in the 1980s by 20

by 1998 all the black rhinos were wiped

out

due to poaching for their homes

however there’s good news because the

zambian government

in collaboration with the partners

decided to reintroduce

the black rhino into the value and today

we have a small but growing population

of black rhinos in the luangwa valley

this is one of the biggest success

conservation stories

in africa today and i’m proud that i

played a small part

into that success

now if you have to transfer the success

from the luango valley into the kaffwe

flats

it may not yield the same results

because

unlike poaching it is difficult to

sterilize

an infection from a wildlife population

and also more difficult from the

environment

today we can decide to introduce 2000

budapest population in the kafwa floods

and surely these water beasts would

still meet the same fate

because the threat that eliminated

the first population is still present

today

we can decide let’s take enough rangers

into the kafwa flats

to protect the current later population

and we achieve zero poaching the end

result

is that the later population would still

continue to diminish

and to decline and probably follow the

same fate as that of the world abyss

because it is difficult to get rid of

infectious disease

in wildlife population

the point to take home

is that infectious disease

and pathogens are a silent threat to our

wildlife population today

and we need to take extra effort to

guard our wildlife

because the effects of

disease is usually non-reversible

so what can we do about it to begin with

in addition to the traditional model of

law enforcement

we need to introduce wildlife health

programs

that will focus on the health of the

wildlife

we can do this by first of all changing

our policies

and strategies that focuses on the

health of livestock that is around

conservation areas

with the objective of preventing

spillover of pathogens from our

livestock

into our wildlife population this

has an added benefit in that it will

attract people that are involved in

poaching

to alternative livelihoods because

livestock will become attractive

in addition to that this would promote

healthy food and healthy use of our

livestock products

we also need to encourage and raise

awareness

that wildlife is a national treasure and

it is a heritage

of us as a people as we guide them

against poaching and habitat loss

we also need to protect them from

infectious diseases

thank you

[Music]

you