The Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience & Sea Turtle Hospital, University of Florida, 9505 Ocean Shore Blvd., St. Augustine, FL, 32080-8610, USA.
Systems Biology Ireland, Science Link Building, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
Glob Chang Biol. 2017 May;23(5):1792-1805. doi: 10.1111/gcb.13548. Epub 2016 Nov 21.
The current species extinction crisis is being exacerbated by an increased rate of emergence of epizootic disease. Human-induced factors including habitat degradation, loss of biodiversity and wildlife population reductions resulting in reduced genetic variation are accelerating disease emergence. Novel, efficient and effective approaches are required to combat these epizootic events. Here, we present the case for the application of human precision medicine approaches to wildlife medicine in order to enhance species conservation efforts. We consider how the precision medicine revolution, coupled with the advances made in genomics, may provide a powerful and feasible approach to identifying and treating wildlife diseases in a targeted, effective and streamlined manner. A number of case studies of threatened species are presented which demonstrate the applicability of precision medicine to wildlife conservation, including sea turtles, amphibians and Tasmanian devils. These examples show how species conservation could be improved by using precision medicine techniques to determine novel treatments and management strategies for the specific medical conditions hampering efforts to restore population levels. Additionally, a precision medicine approach to wildlife health has in turn the potential to provide deeper insights into human health and the possibility of stemming and alleviating the impacts of zoonotic diseases. The integration of the currently emerging Precision Medicine Initiative with the concepts of EcoHealth (aiming for sustainable health of people, animals and ecosystems through transdisciplinary action research) and One Health (recognizing the intimate connection of humans, animal and ecosystem health and addressing a wide range of risks at the animal-human-ecosystem interface through a coordinated, collaborative, interdisciplinary approach) has great potential to deliver a deeper and broader interdisciplinary-based understanding of both wildlife and human diseases.
当前的物种灭绝危机正因疫病大爆发的出现频率增加而加剧。人类诱发的因素包括生境退化、生物多样性丧失以及野生动物数量减少导致遗传变异减少，这些都加速了疾病的爆发。需要采用新颖、高效和有效的方法来应对这些疫病爆发事件。在这里，我们提出了将人类精准医学方法应用于野生动物医学的案例，以增强物种保护工作。我们考虑了精准医学革命，以及基因组学的进步，如何为有针对性、有效和简化的方式识别和治疗野生动物疾病提供一种强大且可行的方法。提出了一些濒危物种的案例研究，展示了精准医学在野生动物保护中的适用性，包括海龟、两栖动物和袋獾。这些例子表明，通过使用精准医学技术确定新型治疗方法和管理策略来治疗阻碍恢复种群水平的特定医疗状况，物种保护可以得到改善。此外，对野生动物健康的精准医学方法也有可能深入了解人类健康，并有可能遏制和减轻人畜共患病的影响。将当前新兴的精准医学计划与生态健康（通过跨学科行动研究实现人类、动物和生态系统的可持续健康）和一健康（认识到人类、动物和生态系统健康之间的密切联系，并通过协调、协作、跨学科的方法解决动物-人类-生态系统界面上的广泛风险）的概念相结合，具有很大的潜力，可以更深入和广泛地了解野生动物和人类疾病。
