Fig 1.
Study setting Switzerland is a federative state comprising 26 states (“cantons”) which feature three distinct hunting regimes.
The diagnostic institute is located in the capital city Bern. Map data ©swisstopo.
Table 1.
Grouping of cases applied during analysis.
Table 2.
Activities/duties of trainees.
Table 3.
Types of cases.
Fig 2.
A) Total case numbers. Annual number of carcasses submitted for post-mortem investigation to the diagnostic institute during the study period (2002–2019). B) species-specific submissions. of birds, lagomorphs, rodents, carnivores, amphibians and reptiles (see Table 1 for species grouping) during the study period. C) Pathogen-specific trends. Most common diagnosed diseases in land birds and other taxa/species (lagomorphs, beaver, carnivores) during the study period.
Fig 3.
A) Submitter roles. ~2/3rd of all cases are submitted through hunting-associated stakeholders, while ~1/3rd of cases came from other stakeholders in 2002, 2010, and 2019. The contributions of certain alternative sources are alternating through the years. B) Submitter location. Between 2002 and 2019, the geographic origin of the submissions expanded to previously uncovered regions and administrative units. Map data ©swisstopo.
Fig 4.
A) Species gaps. Only ~3% of ungulates and carnivore carcasses were submitted to the GWHS for examination. For lagomorphs the numbers were much higher. B) Geographic gaps. Not all species groups were represented equally in all geographic areas. Data from 2002, 2010 and 2019 together illustrated that ungulates and carnivores (hunted and protected species) were submitted from all over the country, while small species (not hunted) were mostly submitted by areas north of the alps. Map data ©swisstopo.
Fig 5.
Knowledge and data sources, collection points, gaps, and recommendations.
Wildlife health surveillance (WHS) knowledge and expertise is scattered across various levels of geographic areas and expertise. Citizens, local experts, general surveillance, targeted surveillance, research projects, and specialist centers each contribute different types of expertise (violet), and their knowledge is currently collected at different sites (teal). More holistic collection options would include a central database that is accessible for all contributors, and the inclusion of online reporting systems (ORS) in the data collection process (orange). Importantly, local veterinarians are presently not allowed to handle/treat wildlife except for euthanasia to end suffering, and official veterinarians are usually not trained to recognize or deal with wildlife disease.