Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Colorado
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Problem statement: Data associated with wildlife disease monitoring are often spatially referenced, but the spatial information is not always utilized in formal statistical models for prediction and forecasting. So What? Why this research matters: The ability to formally make inferences about wildlife health at large spatial and temporal scales is challenging and new statistical methods are needed to incorporate existing data sources to improve our understanding of wildlife disease dyanmics. Collaboration/Partners: This project is in collaboration with scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Research That Informs Decisions: Formal statistical models that account for the spatio-temporal dynamics of disease spread can lead to be a better understanding of mechanisms and forecasts that aid in the management of wildlife populations.