Management of plague at Wind Cave National Park: A case study in the application of the One Health concept of disease management

NEW AND EMERGING WILDLIFE DISEASES will likely be one of the greatest challenges confronting the National Park Service (NPS) this century. As the world "gets smaller," and people and animals move more frequently and over greater distances, diseases will likely spread. Furthermore, disease severity can be exacerbated by environmental degradation, such as pollution, climate change, species invasions, and changes in land use. Increased prevalence and severity of disease may have ominous consequences for people, wildlife, and the ecosystems upon which they both depend. In fact, many of these incipient diseases can affect both humans and wildlife. Diseases that are transmitted between humans and nonhuman animals are known as "zoonotic" diseases. The increased occurrence of such diseases may affect NPS operations more than most government bureaus, because the National Park Service provides for human safety and well-being while also conserving wildlife and ecological integrity. In this article we briefly describe the "One Health" concept of disease management, and we present a case study of the application of this framework at Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota.