Department of Animal Health, Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Southern Italy, Portici, Italy.
Osservatorio Faunistico Venatorio, Naples, Italy.
Parasitology. 2023 Oct;150(12):1089-1095. doi: 10.1017/S0031182023001038. Epub 2023 Nov 6.
Environmental and anthropogenic factors may significantly affect the diffusion of wild animals, enhancing the interface of human–wildlife interactions and driving the spread of pathogens and vector-borne diseases between animals and humans. However, in the last decade, the involvement of citizens in scientific research (the so-called approach, henceforth abbreviated as CS) provided a network of large-scale and cost-effective surveillance programmes of wildlife populations and their related arthropod species. Therefore, this review aims to illustrate different methods and tools used in CS studies, by arguing the main advantages and considering the limitations of this approach. The CS approach has proven to be an effective method for establishing density and distribution of several wild animal species, in urban, peri-urban and rural environments, as well a source of information regarding vector–host associations between arthropods and wildlife. Extensive efforts are recommended to motivate citizens to be involved in scientific projects to improve both their and our knowledge of the ecology and diseases of wildlife. Following the paradigm, collaborative and multidisciplinary models for the surveillance of wildlife and related arthropod species should be further developed by harnessing the potentiality of the CS approach.
环境和人为因素可能会显著影响野生动物的扩散，增强人类与野生动物相互作用的界面，并促使病原体和媒介传播疾病在动物和人类之间传播。然而，在过去十年中，公民参与科学研究（所谓的公民科学方法，以下简称 CS）为野生动物种群及其相关节肢动物物种提供了大规模和具有成本效益的监测计划网络。因此，本综述旨在通过论证这种方法的主要优势并考虑其局限性，说明 CS 研究中使用的不同方法和工具。CS 方法已被证明是一种在城市、城郊和农村环境中确定几种野生动物物种密度和分布的有效方法，也是关于节肢动物与野生动物之间媒介-宿主关系的信息来源。建议做出广泛努力，激励公民参与科学项目，以增进我们对野生动物生态学和疾病的了解。遵循这一范式，应通过利用 CS 方法的潜力，进一步发展针对野生动物和相关节肢动物物种的协作和多学科监测模式。
