Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39923082›Full record

ArticleBMC veterinary research2025

Climate change as a wildlife health threat: a scoping review.

Sabrina S Greening, Lucie R Pascarosa, Avery L Munster, Roderick B Gagne, Julie C Ellis

Abstract readScoping Review
In one paragraph

Article in BMC veterinary research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Review
  3. Review
  4. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Sabrina S GreeningDepartment of Pathobiology, Wildlife Futures Program, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, New Bolton Center, 382 W. Street Road, Kennett Square, PA, 19348, USA. sgreenin@vet.upenn.edu.
Lucie R PascarosaUniversity of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, 3800 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.
Avery L MunsterUniversity of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, 3800 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.
Roderick B GagneDepartment of Pathobiology, Wildlife Futures Program, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, New Bolton Center, 382 W. Street Road, Kennett Square, PA, 19348, USA.
Julie C EllisDepartment of Pathobiology, Wildlife Futures Program, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, New Bolton Center, 382 W. Street Road, Kennett Square, PA, 19348, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThe definition of wildlife health continues to expand with the recognition that health is more than the absence of disease. Practitioners are working to integrate concepts such as vulnerability, adaptation, and resilience into wildlife health research, surveillance, and management actions. Here, we performed a scoping review to identify scholarly articles from 2008 onwards with a focus on climate change impacts on wildlife health. Searches were conducted in Web of Science, Zoological Record, Scopus, Ovid CAB Abstracts, and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. Articles were screened for relevance and fed into an AI-based thematic analysis that identified recurring themes across the literature. Each theme was manually reviewed and refined to help describe the scope and depth of existing literature, identify key themes, and assess potential knowledge gaps.

resultsIn total, 2,249 citations were retrieved of which 372 were included in further analysis after applying a set of inclusion/exclusion criteria. On closer inspection, 30.4% (113/372) of the papers were focused on climate-associated impacts on vector distribution. For this reason, two thematic analyses were performed, one which only included the subset of papers focused on climate change and vector distribution (n = 113) and another including the remaining papers focused on climate-associated impacts on wildlife health (n = 259). Amongst the subset of papers focused on vector distribution, top themes included concepts related to pathogen transmission dynamics, human/public health, and pathogen prevalence, while health papers focused on concepts related to increasing temperatures, species home ranges and distribution, and changing environmental variables.

conclusionsA large number of the papers retrieved in the literature search focused on how climate change impacts the distribution and abundance of host, vector, and pathogen species, remaining disease-centric in their approach. Papers including themes related to management actions were limited reflecting some uncertainty on how best to respond and prepare for climate change. Further discussion is needed on how wildlife health concepts can be used to help inform on-the-ground management actions in the face of climate uncertainty, this includes the collection of baseline health data and research into health metrics that could be used as indicators of resilience at the ecosystem level.

Indexed as

Animals, WildClimate ChangeAnimalsAdaptationClimate ChangeConservationResilienceThematic AnalysisVector DistributionWildlife Health

Identifiers

PMID39923082
PMCPMC11806627

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.