Climate and other environmental change has implications for the emergence and spread of many pathogens and alternations to infectious disease processes. These implications pose a dilemma for agencies such as the NPS, which is charged with conserving natural resources while also providing for public enjoyment and protection of human health. The complexity of infectious disease ecology, range of projected environmental changes, and diversity of responses of disease-causing pathogens, vectors, and hosts will make it particularly challenging for managers to accurately predict outbreaks to protect resources and human health. Careful examination of the state of the knowledge and recognition of the knowledge gaps for any given system are integral to selecting an appropriate strategy for disease management. We will cover some of the observed and predicted impacts of climate change on wildlife diseases, and ways in which native disease impacts may be amplified due to climate change and other anthropogenic stressors on native wildlife and ecosystems. Managers are encouraged to address infectious disease from an ecosystem processes standpoint, and evaluate management options from the disease impact perspective rather than based on historic categorization of a specific organism or microbe.   

Danielle Buttke is the One Health Coordinator for the National Park Service, a joint position between the Office of Public Health and Wildlife Health Branch. She is a public health service officer and one of two epidemiologists for the National Park Service and specializes in zoonotic disease and ecological drivers of infectious disease.  Prior to joining the National Park Service, she served as an epidemic intelligence service officer at the CDC's National Center for Environmental Health.  Dr. Buttke grew up on a working South Dakota dairy farm, and holds bachelors in ecology and political science, a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine and PhD in comparative biomedical sciences from Cornell University, and a Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.