Wildlife disease surveillance programs monitor pathogen emergence but involve capture and sampling methods with welfare implications for monitored animals.
Wildlife disease surveillance welfare requires balancing the public and animal health benefit of early pathogen detection against the welfare costs of surveillance procedures on individual animals. Active surveillance through capture and sampling causes acute stress and sometimes mortality, particularly for bats and small mammals that are difficult to capture without injury. Passive surveillance through found-dead animal analysis and environmental sampling through eDNA and wastewater analysis avoids live animal welfare costs while providing meaningful disease intelligence. Surveillance programs should prioritize passive methods and minimize live animal capture to the minimum necessary for surveillance objectives.