Sarcoptic mange; an emerging threat to Chilean wild mammals?

Sarcoptic mange has been anecdotally reported in Chilean wildlife during the last decade. Although this disease can have devastating outcomes for biodiversity, there is no comprehensive assessment of this potential threat in Chile. Because the current capacity to monitor sarcoptic mange and other wildlife diseases is limited in this country, we used abnormal alopecia to search for suspect cases across several sources of information to identify, to the extent available data allow, the location and temporal trends of wild mammals with this characteristic across Chile. We surveyed park rangers, examined rehabilitation center databases, and collated citizen and media reports. The information gathered suggests that observations of alopecic wild mammals, mainly foxes (Lycalopex sp.), their presence in the country, and the number of species fulfilling our case definition have increased over the last 15 years. Moreover, abnormally alopecic mammals are currently located broadly in Chile. We also confirmed the utility of abnormal alopecia to define a suspect sarcoptic mange case in the most commonly affected group, Lycalopex foxes. Our findings are highly concerning from a conservation perspective. We thus emphasize the need for an urgent surveillance and management plan for sarcoptic mange and other diseases that may be threatening Chilean biodiversity.