1.
Garden Wildlife Health is a collaborative project between the BTO, Zoological Society of London (ZSL), Froglife and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds that aims to monitor the health of, and identify disease threats to, British wildlife. It relies on members of the public reporting their observations of sick or dead wildlife online on and the process is very simple. Currently GWH monitors the health conditions that affect amphibians, reptiles, hedgehogs and garden birds. The website contains lots of information on wildlife diseases, best practice advice, mapping tools, and most importantly, where you can report disease incidents of garden wildlife. Please also note that the term “garden” is used loosely and the reports are NOT restricted to wildlife found in your own garden. You can also report animals you observed on your walks or trips in the country, provided you know the location.

2. Constant effort Constant effort
Here is a schematic for how the GWH project works.
1. Briefly, systematic participants (i.e. BTO Garden BirdWatch participants) report information on the species of wildlife that they observe in their gardens and whether or not they see signs of sick animals on a weekly basis throughout the year.
2. Members of the public who observe sick or dead wildlife in their gardens are invited to make ad hoc or opportunistic reports to the GWH website.
3. Whilst the reports alone are useful, where freshly dead specimens are available, the GWH vets liaise with the reporters and make arrangements for submission of specimens for post-mortem examination.
5. The disease findings are linked with population monitoring results (produced from BTO Garden BirdWatch) to evaluate whether diseases may cause a population decline.
6. Practical guidance on methods for disease prevention and control is offered.
Constant effort

3. GBW Health Tab BTO Garden BirdWatch
Tony Kelly
When entering weekly BTO Garden BirdWatch reports you will find this tab called “health” where you are asked to report any signs of ill health observed in the wildlife species you have seen that week, or to verify that you have not seen any sick or dead wildlife in your garden. Whilst it might not seem so, this negative sightings data is crucial for our analyses, so please do take the time to complete this section.
Andrew Cannon
BTO Garden BirdWatch 3

4. www.gardenwildlifehealth.org BTO Garden BirdWatch 4 Tony Kelly
Andrew Cannon
BTO Garden BirdWatch 4

5. Report disease incident
Tony Kelly
You simply create a profile for your garden on the GWH website.
Andrew Cannon
BTO Garden BirdWatch 5

6. Information on your garden
Tony Kelly
Then you enter your garden details. The information entered will not be visible to any other member of the public, but the approximate location will be available for the mapping tool so that everyone can see national trends in the types of report and species affected.
Andrew Cannon
BTO Garden BirdWatch 6

7. Information on the incident
Tony Kelly
And then you add information on the disease incident, including the species and number of animals involved.
Andrew Cannon
BTO Garden BirdWatch 7

8. Information on the incident
Tony Kelly
There are various typical symptoms to tick which can often give an indication of the underlying problem. A free text box gives the opportunity to enter any additional observations and comments.
Andrew Cannon
BTO Garden BirdWatch 8

9. Information on the incident
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Tony Kelly
If you have a freshly dead carcass that you may be willing to submit for post-mortem examination, please indicate this by ticking the box “freshly dead carcass available for submission”. By providing your telephone number you allow the GWH project veterinarians to get in contact with you to discuss the incident and further submission process.
You can also upload pictures, which can be extremely helpful to the veterinarians to reach a suspected diagnosis.
Andrew Cannon
BTO Garden BirdWatch 9

10. Case investigation BTO Garden BirdWatch
Tony Kelly
Based at ZSL, the GWH vets conduct a full post-mortem examination routinely including microbiology and parasitology, and histology and molecular tests where indicated. In some cases an x-ray image might be useful. When all the test results are available, the submitter of the animal receives a post-mortem report with information on the likely cause of death and advice on how to mitigate the problem in the future, where appropriate.
Andrew Cannon
BTO Garden BirdWatch 10

11. Mapping function BTO Garden BirdWatch
Tony Kelly
Another interesting tool that is accessible for everyone on the GWH website is the mapping function. Here you can map various health conditions and reported species in different years, and gain information on patterns and frequency of certain diseases at a national level.
Andrew Cannon
BTO Garden BirdWatch 11

12. Disease factsheets BTO Garden BirdWatch
Tony Kelly
You can find plenty of information on the GWH website, e.g. factsheets on the most commonly detected conditions we diagnose in garden wildlife, some best practice advice and information on what to do if you find a sick or dead wild animal.
Andrew Cannon
BTO Garden BirdWatch 12