About the Map
About
Screenshot of the Wildlife Disease News Digest
The Map is updated multiple times a week with news. Periodically improvements and new features will be added, so do check back frequently.
In addition to the Map, the Digest delivers wildlife disease news through other services, such as our blog, email alerts, and RSS feeds. Check out how to subscribe and get the news delivered right to your electronic doorstep.
Mapping the News
In order to populate the map, WDIN combs through authoritative news services and email alerts. The article metadata (e.g. author name, publisher, published date) is recorded and cataloged into a Dublin core-based database. Each article is also tagged with keywords which are used to filter the content shown on the map by the keyword a user selects. There are seven map filters: wildlife health topic, wildlife/human topic, domestic animal/wildlife topic, disease type, species, country, and date.
Workflow diagram for populating the map
News Criteria Selection
In addition to news on recent disease surveillance, detection and outbreaks, WDIN’s scope for news articles includes non-disease incidents that affect wildlife health, such as oil spills or poisonings. In recognition of the connection between wildlife health, human health, and domestic animal health, news articles that relate to these connections are also included.
WDIN staff searches and sifts through authoritative news service RSS feeds and email alerts almost every day in order to find the most relevant wildlife disease news. Sources and tools used include:
- Google Alerts
- ProMed Mail
- EurekAlert!
- USAHA (United States Animal Health Association) News
- A variety of science news sites & blogs
Survey of Wildlife Disease Issues
With no global surveillance system in existence for the monitoring of wildlife health, this tool helps to fill the void by harvesting unstructured, disparate information about disease outbreaks and other wildlife related topics. Not only supplied for the wildlife professional, the information is directly applicable to those who study diseases of concern for domestic animals and human health.
Disclaimers
- The opinions discussed in news articles posted to the Global Wildlife Disease News Map do not reflect positions held by the Wildlife Data Integration Network.
- WDIN cannot guarantee that links to older news items will work as most news providers only offer access to their articles for a limited time.
Technical Information
How does the map work?
- An XML file is generated on demand for all the articles that contain geographic information
- A Google Map application is used to display the contents of that XML file
- In the event a filter is used to subset the articles shown on the map, the XML file contents are limited to include only those articles with the selected filter attached
Change Log
- A geoRSS feed is published which allows users to pull the Disease News into external mapping appliances (for example Google Maps or Acme Maps) (October 2007)
- Version 1.0 of the Global Wildlife Disease News Map is available online (December 2007)
- Georeference information is limited to the administrative unit level.
- Map contents can be filtered by wildlife health topic
- Version 2.0 of the Global Wildlife Disease News Map is made available (March 2008)
- Georeference information refined to display at many levels - Continent, Country, Administrative Unit, County, or Place
- GeoRSS feed is updated to provide more detailed geographic information.
- Filters are expanded to allow users to limit content shown by wildlife health topics, human health/wildlife topics, domestic animal/wildlife health topics, disease type, country, and species
- Google Earth network link file is published for users as an alternate means to view the Disease News contents in Google Earth. When added to Google Earth, this network link will update the layer every time you open Google Earth. If you have troubles with the network link, you can use the KML file directly. The KML file will NOT keep itself up to date, and you will have to retrieve it from this site each time you want an updated copy.
Future Modifications Planned
- Bring all past WDIN News Digest articles into the map (back to December 2005)
- Include a means to filter by date range
- Allow users to combine filters
- Allow users a means to extract article information and geographic information for other uses
U. S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center and the
University of Wisconsin-Madison's Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
