Development of methodology to prioritise wildlife pathogens for surveillance.

We developed and evaluated a methodology to prioritise pathogens for a wildlife disease surveillance strategy in New Zealand. The methodology, termed 'rapid risk analysis' was based on the import risk analysis framework recommended by the Office Internationale des Epizooties (OIE), and involved: hazard identification, risk estimation, and ranking of 48 exotic and 34 endemic wildlife pathogens. The risk assessment was more rapid than a full quantitative assessment through the use of a semi-quantitative approach to score pathogens for probability of entry to NZ (release assessment), likelihood of spread (exposure assessment) and consequences in free-living wildlife, captive wildlife, humans, livestock and companion animals.