Research overview: disease challenges in European wildcat conservation

The European wildcat’s recovery is complicated by disease and hybridization stemming from contact with abundant domestic cats. This overview surveys the disease threats facing wildcats, including feline leukemia and immunodeficiency viruses, parvovirus, respiratory pathogens and parasites acquired from domestic and feral cats, alongside the genetic erosion of hybridization. It examines surveillance efforts, the difficulty of distinguishing wildcats from hybrids, and management measures such as feral cat control and vaccination near wildcat habitat. The synthesis connects disease epidemiology to the broader conservation struggle of a native European carnivore. It aims to help readers understand how the close evolutionary kinship between wildcats and domestic cats, which enables both interbreeding and shared pathogens, makes disease an integral and difficult dimension of wildcat conservation across Europe.