Book Review The Crisis Discipline of Conservation

Conservation Medicine: Ecologi- making impacts to the environment chapters, including the pursuit of cal in Practice. Aguirre, A. that can have direct negative con- ecological health, the relationship be- A., R. S. Ostfeld, G. M. Tabor, C. sequences on our quality of life, tween health and environmental con- House, and M. C. Pearl, editors. 2002. from reducing potential cerns, examination of health con- Oxford University Press, New York. to increasing exposure to diseases. cerns beyond the species-specific ap- 431 pp. $45.00. ISBN 0–195–15093. The fourth section, “Implementing proach, understanding of and solu- Conservation Medicine,” describes tions for the relationship between Because modern medical training has the problem-solving side of conser- the environmental crisis and such a strong diagnostic and clini- vation medicine, with case studies and nonhuman health, and the cal focus, most human health profes- of wildlife management and human unification of medical and veterinary sionals have, understandably, little to health. The final section, “Conser- science with ecology and conserva- no training in ecology and evolution. vation Medicine and Challenges for tion biology. have a much broader the Future,” considers the next steps Although conservation medicine is training but share a focus on diag- and hurdles for the discipline, with a new term (Koch 1996), academic nosing and curing a sick individual. a chapter on ecotourism that may interest in the intersection of conser- This may be changing. New human make you reconsider your next va- vation and disease is not new. Epi- health scares such as Lyme disease, cation. The first chapter in this sec- demiology, wildlife biology and man- , and SARS have gen- tion presents a fascinating evaluation agement, and ecological parasitol- erated public angst, motivating some of funded research at the National ogy are examples of fields that have health professionals to consider the Institutes of Health, indicating many rich histories and developed litera- ecological context of disease and, in studies on topics related to biodi- tures on this topic. All have prof- particular, to worry about how global versity (e.g., drug discovery, medical ited from collaborations between change may facilitate these and other models, disease ecology, and environ- ecologists and health scientists, and health crises. mental indicators) but few that con- the rise of conservation medicine Conservation Medicine: Ecologi- sider the relationship between envi- is symptomatic of growing inter- cal Health in Practice is a pioneer- ronmental degradation and disease. est in these collaborations. The key ing effort to bring together profes- For conservation medicine to grow to appreciating this book is in un- sionals and academics on the fore- as a discipline, this funding barrier derstanding what makes conserva- front of treating disease in an eco- will need to be overcome. Although tion medicine different from past ap- logical context. The diverse range of each chapter is concise and scholarly, proaches. This difference is made expertise held by the 65 contribu- I believe that, as is usual for such most obvious by the title of chapter 3, tors is the key to the book’s value compiled volumes, several chapters “Conservation Medicine: the Birth of and illustrates the means by which would have benefited from additional Another Crisis Discipline.” Conserva- new disciplines emerge. The editors synthesis, focus, or analysis. tion Medicine is about finding solu- have loosely organized 29 chapters To most people, the term con- tions, and, as we learn to appreciate into five sections. An introductory servation medicine will be puzzling in academia, for every solution there section on “Ecological Health and initially, given that it is not clear must be a problem. By definition, Change” defines the discipline and where the fields of conservation and conservation medicine emphasizes argues strongly that an ecological medicine interact. The cover’s Venn crises. health crisis is upon us. The sec- diagram provides an excellent visual For this reason, I worry that read- ond section on “Monitoring Ecolog- definition of conservation medicine. ers of this book might come away ical Health” describes the challenges Here, three partially overlapping cir- with the simple message that the of getting information about ecologi- cles represent human health, ani- more we mess up the planet, the cal health and reveals that there are mal health, and ecosystem health. less healthy its inhabitants will be. Al- far too few systematic programs to The intersections of these concepts though this is likely to be true for monitor disease in nature. The third are ecological health, which in prac- some noninfectious or nonspecific section on “Ecological Health and tice is conservation medicine. Other infectious diseases, it is quite likely ” hits us with the headline- concepts are defined in the initial that many host-specific infectious

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Conservation Biology, Pages 1–2 Volume 17, No. 6, December 2003 2 Book Review diseases will decline with stress 1997). Conservation medicine, as a versity of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106– (Lafferty & Holt 2003). Take digenetic crisis, problem-oriented discipline, 6150, U.S.A., email [email protected] trematodes (parasitic flatworms with focuses on the diseases that are in- complex life cycles) that use wa- creasing, but, in focusing on prob- Literature Cited ter birds as final hosts. In some lems, it can give the false impression degraded habitats, these trematodes that problems are the rule. Huspeni, T. C., and K. D. Lafferty. 2003. Using larval trematodes that parasitize Q1 tend to disappear and their hosts be- Conservation Medicine: Ecologi- snails to evaluate a salt-marsh restoration come healthier. This is because each cal Health in Practice is well worth project. Ecological Applications 00:000– species, to complete its life cycle, owning, particularly at the price of 000. Q2 must find a series of required hosts. $0.69 per author. The chapters pro- Koch, M. 1996. Wildlife, people, and develop- If the water is toxic or some hosts vide a breadth of well- referenced top- ment: veterinary contributions to wildlife health and resource management in Africa. absent, the trematodes go extinct. A ics on problems and solutions related Tropical Animal Health and Production rich community of trematodes, there- to disease in the environment, and 28:68–80. fore, makes a very good indicator of these will be of interest to an equally Lafferty, K. D. 1997. Environmental parasitol- Q3 a healthy ecosystem (Huspeni & Laf- broad audience. Perhaps its greatest ogy: what can parasites tell us about human ferty 2003). Parasites are sensitive to value to conservation biology is as impacts on the environment? Parasitology Today 13:251–255. the environment, and as we change a reference for communicating utili- Lafferty, K. D., and L. Gerber. 2002. Good the environment we will change the tarian examples of how conservation medicine for conservation biology: the in- role of parasites and the diseases can serve humans through improved tersection of and conserva- they cause (Lafferty & Gerber 2002). human health. tion theory. Conservation Biology 16:593– Some diseases increase with stress, 604. Kevin D. Lafferty Lafferty, K. D., and R. D. Holt. 2003. How others decrease. Some diseases are should environmental stress affect the pop- unaffected, and the pattern varies ac- U.S. Geological Survey, Western Ecological Re- ulation dynamics of disease? Ecology Let- cording to the type of stress (Lafferty search Center, Marine Science Institute, Uni- ters 00:000–000. Q4

Conservation Biology Volume 17, No. 6, December 2003 Queries

Q1 Author: 2003 correct date for Hupeni & Lafferty?

Q2 Author Huspeni & Lafferty: 2003 correct date? Please provide vol. & pp. nos.

Q3 Author: 2003 correct date for Lafferty & Holt?

Q4 Author: Lafferty & Holt: 2003 correct date? Please provide vol. & pp. nos.