Research overview: disease threats to wild tiger populations

Tigers, reduced to small, fragmented populations, face disease as one of several extinction pressures, most notably canine distemper documented in Amur tigers. This overview surveys the spectrum of disease threats to wild tigers, including distemper-induced neurological disease and mortality, exposure to feline viruses, and the heightened risk that even rare lethal outbreaks pose to tiny subpopulations. It examines the roles of domestic dogs and prey in transmission, modeling that links infrequent disease deaths to elevated extinction risk, and debates over vaccination and reservoir control. The synthesis connects disease epidemiology to tiger conservation strategy. It aims to help readers understand why, for a species already squeezed by habitat loss and poaching, infectious disease represents an additional and sometimes underappreciated threat that can tip small populations toward local extinction.