Stuart Patterson

Royal Veterinary College | RVC · Department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences

The jaguar Panthera onca is classified as Near Threatened by the IUCN, and the population in the wild is decreasing. To date, no studies on the causes of mortality in jaguars in European zoos have been completed. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the most common causes of mortality in captive jaguars in the European breeding populati...

The Wildlife Health Bridge was established in 2009 with the aim of improving the expertise and knowledge base of wildlife health professionals in biodiverse low- and middle-income countries. The Wildlife Health Bridge centres around partnerships among educational institutions: the Zoological Society of London, the Royal Veterinary College, the Univ...

Haemorrhagic disease associated with elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (Elephantid herpesvirus, EEHV) infections is the leading cause of death for captive Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) calves in Europe and North America. 1,2 This study assessed the effect of captive herd management on EEHV shedding, as evidence of latent infection reactivati...

Haemorrhagic disease associated with elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (Elephantid herpesvirus, EEHV) infections is the leading cause of death for Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) calves. This study assessed the effect of captive herd management on EEHV shedding, as evidence of latent infection reactivation, focusing on: (1) the influence of so...

Individuals vary in their potential to acquire and transmit infections, but this fact is currently underexploited in disease control strategies. We trialled a trait-based vaccination strategy to reduce tuberculosis in free-living meerkats by targeting high-contact meerkats (socially dominant individuals) in one study arm, and high-susceptibility in...

Langurs are Asian primates belonging to the Colobinae subfamily. Langur populations are declining, with most species categorized as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Investigation into the threats to population viability and sustainability would be beneficial but there is limited literature available on common diseas...

Diagnostic tests are used to classify individual animals’ infection statuses. However, validating test performance in wild animals without gold standard tests is extremely challenging, and the issue is further complicated in chronic conditions where measured immune parameters vary over time. Here, we demonstrate the value of combining evidence from...

Background: Elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV) infections can lead to a clinical haemorrhagic disease (HD) process, which is the primary cause of death in captive Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) calves jeopardising the sustainability of captive populations. Intense monitoring remains the most efficient strategy in disease control since a...

Tigers (Panthera tigris spp.) are endangered in the wild; ensuring sustainable insurance populations requires careful planning within zoological collections. In captive situations, contraceptives are often used to control breeding and ensure genetically viable populations that contain manageable numbers of animals; reversible contraceptives are ide...

Johne's disease, caused by Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP), is a chronic condition of dairy cattle, and is endemic in the UK. Lack of understanding of the relative importance of different transmission routes reduces the impact of control scheme recommendations. The long incubation period for Johne's disease makes evaluation of con...

1.Tuberculosis (TB) is an important and widespread disease of wildlife, livestock, and humans worldwide, but long-term empirical datasets describing this condition are rare. A population of meerkats (Suricata suricatta) in South Africa's Kalahari Desert have been diagnosed with Mycobacterium suricattae, a novel strain of TB, causing fatal disease i...

Background Sensitive diagnostic tools are necessary for the detection of Mycobacterium suricattae infection in meerkats (Suricata suricatta) in order to more clearly understand the epidemiology of tuberculosis and the ecological consequences of the disease in this species. We therefore aimed to develop a cytokine release assay to measure antigen-sp...