Wildlife Health Surveillance Victoria is a state-wide passive surveillance program based at the Faculty of Veterinary Science of The University of Melbourne. It has a bottom-up structure with the public and staff of the Victorian Departments of Environment and Primary Industry and Parks Victoria (state organisation responsible for national parks in Victoria) reporting mortality and morbidity events in free ranging endemic mammals, birds, reptile and amphibians for investigation. Pathologists, microbiologists, parasitologists, virologists and epidemiologists within the Faculty and collaborators from other institutions contribute to diagnoses. Wildlife Heath Australia (a national body which collects and co-ordinates data on wildlife disease) provides a data base for reporting to the Australian Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and the OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health). Factors that guided the development of Wildlife Heath Surveillance Victoria are discussed.

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This paper mainly introduces the background of wildlife health issues, nation-wide surveillance system of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) in wild birds and an ongoing activity related to wildlife diseases in Japan. From social and biological backgrounds, Japan had not enough incentives and situations to establish wildlife health surveillance system. However, it is important to establish the surveillance system in view of recent outbreak of HPAIV and other factors which might cause emerging and re-emerging diseases. In Japan, HPAIV H5N1 subtypes were detected from wild birds in 2004, 2007 and 2008. From these backgrounds, Ministry of the Environment Japan (MOEJ) made a manual of HPAIV surveillance in wild birds in 2008 and started the nation-wide surveillance collaborating with local governments, universities, research institutes, and other governmental agencies related to domestic animal health and public health. Although the nation-wide surveillance system is only for HPAIV, in May 2012, passive surveillance of wild birds' mortality events started by the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES). Using the framework of HPAIV surveillance system, the information of wild birds' mortality can be collected. In addition, the local governments can request the investigation for other cause of death except for Avian Influenza by sending these dead birds' samples to NIES. NIES has conducted the investigation and reported the results. At the beginning, to develop the wildlife health surveillance system, Japan needs to construct a database and networks related to wildlife diseases. This might be the first step to establish wildlife health surveillance system in Japan.

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The Asian Society of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine (ASZWM) was officially founded in 2006 as a scientific body and accredited by the Asian Association of Veterinary School. An annual meeting is held every year. Participants from 20 countries have given around 600 presentations so far. Establishing a zoo veterinarian network among Asian countries has been one of the main subjects in the past meetings. As the next step in developing and sustaining an Asian network of conservation medicine and zoo and wildlife medicine, the society board has decided to start certifying a diploma. Thus, in 2012, the Asian College of Conservation Medicine was established under the society board as the diploma accreditation body. In addition, the society will take on a role as the Asian geographic section of the Wildlife Disease Association. In the scenario mentioned above, ASZWM could become a core organization of the wildlife disease surveillance network in East Asia and Oceania.

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This study aimed to establish a noninvasive method for monitoring reproductive endocrinology in a female Somaliwild ass (Equus africanus somaliensis). Enzyme immunoassays (EIA) using progesterone (P₄), estradiol-17β (E₂) and estrone (E₁) antisera were used to analyze fecal progestagens and estrogens. Then, fecal steroid metabolites of different pregnancy stages were identified by a combination of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and EIA. The change in fecal progestagens showed ovarian cyclicity, but estrogens showed no distinct changes during non-pregnancy. Based on the profile of progestagen concentration, it was calculated that an average (±SD) ovarian cycle was 22.7±2.9 days. Fecal progestagen levels were fluctuated throughout the pregnancy, sharply increasing on the 67th and 347th days of pregnancy, and the maximum concentration occurred just before parturition (stillbirth). The estimated gestation period by the progestagen profile was 390 days. Estrogen levels also sharply increased from the 95th day of pregnancy, reached a peak in the middle of pregnancy, and then gradually decreased until approaching parturition (stillbirth). 5α-Pregnane-3β-ol-20-one, 5α-pregnan-3, 20-dione, E₂ and E₁ were mainly detected in feces throughout the pregnancy.The results indicated that the excretion pattern of 5α-pregnane-3β-ol-20-one and 5α-pregnan-3,20-dione detected in feces is effective for monitoring the ovarian cycle and pregnancy, and the profiles of fecal E₂ and E₁ reflect the endocrine function of fetoplacental units.

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Japanese crested ibis (Nipponia nippon) completely disappeared from the wild in 1981, and the last individual indigenous to Japan died in captivity in 2003. Then, as a national project, the Japanese captive population has been established by using 5 individuals derived from the Chinese captive population as founders. In this study, we estimated demographic parameters of the Japanese captive population in order to predict the carrying capacity and the number of newly introduced founders needed to retain the genetic diversity. While a significant population growth was observed, the generation length and the effective population size were found to be still short and small, respectively, suggesting the necessity of the efforts to increase and maintain the genetic diversity including increases of these parameters. Further, assuming that the 5 founders are non-inbred and unrelated, under the condition that the carrying capacity is 200 individuals, the gene diversity after 100 years was estimated to be about 60% with no supplements from China. Therefore, as long as the current results are concerned, continuous introductions of new founders are considered to be exclusively required, although future consecutive demographic analyses should be performed for the reasonable acquisition of the demographic parameter values.

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