Assessing and Communicating Animal Disease Risks for Countryside Users

Project Status: Completed
Type of Project: Research Project
Principal Investigator: Dr Chris Quine, Forest Research, Roslin (Email)

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Publications, Data and Other Outputs

Policy and Practice Note

 

Objectives

This project will result in understanding how both individuals and organisations perceive and respond to the risks of Lyme Disease, and new computer models that predict the location of ticks that bear the disease (possibly leading to the development of an early warning system of dangerous periods and locations). The research will bring these findings together in developing a clearer understanding of the alternative futures that could occur both with and without enhanced preventative action. Many people take great pleasure from experiencing the 'great outdoors', and enjoy a wide range of recreational activities in forests and wild lands in the UK. Such use of the countryside is growing, with increased leisure time/resources, both before and after retirement, and is being actively promoted. Unfortunately, though, there are risks inherent in going into forests and wild lands. One of the most insidious, and least well understood, is the possibility (albeit tiny) of acquiring a disease from a wild animal or bird. One of the most prevalent is a bacterial infection leading to Lyme Disease. Ticks are vectors of such diseases. The limited available evidence suggests that Lyme Disease is increasing in the UK, but both diagnosis and treatment can be problematic. Preventing people from acquiring the disease is therefore highly desirable.

Surprisingly little is known about how best to warn users of the countryside about the potential for disease without scaring them away, and about how best to encourage preventative action without spoiling enjoyment. How should owners and land managers tackle such a problem? How do members of the public react to different types/levels of information? How would users of the countryside (whether they are going there for recreation or whether they work on the land) prefer to receive such information? Do we know enough to prepare appropriate information and what should that be? These questions are at the heart of the current project.

We plan to provide answers to these, and other related questions, by combining a diverse set of scientific skills to produce integrated solutions. These skills include those of biologists who investigate tick populations, ecologists who consider how land provides habitats and can be managed, environmental psychologists who seek to understand how people behave in different environments and social psychologists who look at the best ways of understanding people's views and the most effective ways of providing information to them. This core team will also benefit from the perspectives of those responsible for land management and policy, people who have contracted Lyme Disease and those who work in the forests or spend leisure time there. The research will result in understanding how both individuals and organisations perceive and respond to the risks of Lyme Disease, and new computer models that predict the location of ticks that bear Lyme Disease. The research will bring these findings together in developing a clearer understanding of the alternative futures that could occur both with and without enhanced preventative action.

The results of this project will help all those involved in the countryside to better understand how to deal with diseases such as Lyme Disease, how to communicate the degree of risk effectively, and how to encourage preventative action such that the countryside continues to be a source of pleasure and a means of achieving well-being for its users.