Hazard Identification and Prioritisation Framework to Inform Disease Risk Analysis in Tapirs (Perissodactyla: Tapiridae)

Understanding the health hazards affecting wildlife is essential for effective conservation and disease risk management. This study presents a global systematic review of health hazards affecting tapirs ( Tapirus spp.), synthesising data from 221 studies published between 1924 and 2025. A total of 1970 individual-level case reports were analysed and categorised into infectious, non-infectious, and external causes. External causes, particularly vehicle collisions and hunting, accounted for 52% of all cases and 99.8% of deaths in wild tapirs. In contrast, infectious diseases (78.6%), especially bacterial (66%), were the leading cause of death in captive individuals, followed by non-infectious conditions (20.4%). We developed a semi-quantitative framework to identify and prioritise hazards based on their reported occurrence and case fatality rates, yielding 27 hazards of high or extremely high priority. These were profiled using a One Health approach, considering zoonotic potential, transmission pathways, and mitigation strategies. Our study highlights the importance of transparent, systematic, evidence-based approaches in wildlife disease risk analysis (DRA) and provides both a replicable prioritisation framework and hazard-specific case fatality rates to inform future assessments. This baseline can guide local-scale DRAs and conservation planning. We acknowledge the importance of engaging experts and incorporating the input of interest-holders in decision-making.