There is a critical need for advancements in disease management strategies for wildlife, but free‐living animals pose numerous challenges that can hinder progress. Most disease management attempts involve fixed interventions accompanied by post hoc outcome assessments focused on success or failure. Though these approaches have led to valuable management advances, there are limitations to both the rate of advancement and amount of information that can be gained. As such, strategies that support more rapid progress are required. Sarcoptic mange, caused by epidermal infection with Sarcoptes scabiei mites, is a globally emerging and re‐emerging panzootic that exemplifies this problem. The bare‐nosed wombat (Vombatus ursinus), a marsupial endemic to southeastern Australia, is impacted by sarcoptic mange throughout its geographic range and enhanced disease management capabilities are needed to improve upon existing in situ methods. We sought to advance in situ wildlife disease management for sarcoptic mange in free‐living bare‐nosed wombats, implementing an adaptive approach using fluralaner (Bravecto, MSD Animal Health) and a structured process of learning and method‐optimisation. By using surveillance of treated wombats to inform real‐time management changes, we have demonstrated the efficacy of topically administered fluralaner at 45 and 85 mg/kg against sarcoptic mange. Importantly, we observed variation in the effects of 45 mg/kg doses, but through our adaptive approach found that 85 mg/kg doses consistently reduced mange severity. Through modifying our surveillance program, we also identified individual‐level variation in wombat observability and used this to quantify the level of surveillance needed to assess long‐term management success. Our adaptive intervention represents the first report of sarcoptic mange management with fluralaner in free‐living wildlife and evaluation of its efficacy in situ. This study illustrates how adapting interventions in real time can advance wildlife disease management and may be applicable to accelerating in situ improvements for other host–pathogen systems.

中文翻译：

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推进野生动物疾病现场管理的适应性干预措施


迫切需要改进野生动物疾病管理策略，但自由生活的动物带来了许多可能阻碍进展的挑战。大多数疾病管理尝试都涉及固定干预措施，并伴有针对成功或失败的事后结果评估。尽管这些方法带来了宝贵的管理进步，但进步速度和可以获得的信息量都受到限制。因此，需要支持更快进展的战略。疥癣是由疥螨表皮感染引起的，是一种在全球范围内不断出现和重新出现的动物传染病，就是这一问题的例证。裸鼻袋熊 (Vombatus ursinus) 是澳大利亚东南部特有的有袋动物，在整个地理范围内都受到疥癣的影响，需要增强疾病管理能力，以改进现有的现场方法。我们寻求推进自由生活的裸鼻袋熊疥癣的原位野生动物疾病管理，使用 fluralaner（Bravecto，MSD Animal Health）实施适应性方法以及结构化的学习和方法优化过程。通过对接受治疗的袋熊进行监测以告知实时管理变化，我们证明了局部施用 45 和 85 mg/kg 的氟拉纳对疥癣的疗效。重要的是，我们观察到 45 mg/kg 剂量的效果存在差异，但通过我们的适应性方法发现 85 mg/kg 剂量持续降低疥疮严重程度。通过修改我们的监测计划，我们还确定了袋熊可观察性的个体水平差异，并用它来量化评估长期管理成功所需的监测水平。 我们的适应性干预代表了第一份关于使用 fluralaner 对自由生活的野生动物进行疥癣管理并对其功效进行现场评估的报告。这项研究说明了实时调整干预措施如何能够推进野生动物疾病管理，并可能适用于加速其他宿主病原体系统的原位改善。