Workforce Needs in Veterinary Medicine (2013) / Chapter Skim
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7 Veterinarians in Wildlife and Ecosystem Health
7 Veterinarians in Wildlife and Ecosystem Health
Pages 128-154
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From page 128... ...
Thus, the promotion of healthy ecosystems that sustain wildlife is a social responsibility locally and globally. The need for veterinary expertise to address wildlife health and ecosystem dysfunction is exemplified by the accelerating declines and unprecedented extinctions of animal species (Wilcove and Master, 2005)
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From page 129... ...
In some cases, wildlife and the diseases they carry come into contact with humans and domestic animals because of shrinking or degraded wildlife habitat, which in itself results in increased outbreaks of diseases that undermine wildlife populations and sustainability. Exotic species introductions also bring new diseases to wildlife, as in the case of chytrid fungal infections that have decimated frogs.
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From page 130... ...
, and recommended that wildlife health science become an essential component of global disease prevention, surveillance, monitoring, control, and mitigation. BOX 7-1 Excerpts from the Executive Summary of One Health - A New Professional Imperative The convergence of people, animals, and our environment has created a new dynamic in which the health of each group is inextricably interconnect ed.
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From page 131... ...
Partnership is Critical to Success The veterinary medical profession must implement solutions to the critical workforce challenges in collaboration with multiple professions, including public health, human medicine, bio-engineering, animal science, environ mental science, and wildlife. By working together, more can be accomplished to improve health worldwide, and the veterinary medical profession has the responsibility to assume a major leadership role in that effort.
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From page 132... ...
3. Include wildlife health science as an essential component of global dis ease prevention, surveillance, monitoring, control, and mitigation.
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From page 133... ...
11. Provide adequate resources and support for global wildlife health surveil lance networks that exchange disease information with the public health and agricultural animal health communities as part of early warning systems for the emergence and resurgence of disease threats.
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From page 134... ...
zoo animal medicine; 3) aquatic wildlife and marine mammal health; 4)
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From page 135... ...
Examples of the kinds of activities in which they are involved include conserving wildlife through diagnosing causes of die-offs, management actions to promote healthy wildlife populations, restoring numbers of endangered species, and protecting human and domestic animal populations from threats of infectious agents or toxic chemicals in wildlife. Wildlife veterinarians at the state and federal levels, as well as those in universities, provide leadership and expertise in addressing infectious disease transfer at the domestic animal-wildlife interface.
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From page 136... ...
. USGS veterinarians investigate, diagnose, develop control methods, and develop databases for wildlife diseases; provide training to wildlife biologists and resource managers in wildlife disease identification and control; conduct clinical veterinary research on wildlife diseases; and oversee the health and welfare of experimental and wild animals used in research, including research on wildlife diseases.
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From page 137... ...
However, deriving an accounting of the numbers of individuals involved in academic veterinary medicine related to wildlife and ecosystem health is not a feasible goal because of the wide variety of departments, job titles, and duties involved, and because there is no one unifying organization to which these various professionals affiliate. A number of veterinarians have become specialists in epidemiology, pathology, infectious diseases, toxicology or clinical medicine, and devote much or most of their time to research, teaching, and outreach that helps wildlife and ecosystems.
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From page 138... ...
Roelke-Parker moved to another position, the State of Florida created a position for a wildlife veterinarian to ensure stewardship of the cougars and other wildlife of the state; and cur rently, Florida employs three wildlife veterinarians. The recognition of the need for veterinary expertise became apparent after understanding how vet erinarians can contribute to the agency's goals.
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From page 139... ...
Additional innovative short courses in wildlife and ecosystem health are discussed later in this chapter in a section on Support for Training for Veterinary Careers in Wildlife and Ecosystem Health. TABLE 7-2 Examples of University-based Wildlife Programs University Program Areas of Emphasis University of California, Davis - Wildlife Wildlife health stewardship, avian influenza Health Center management, disease investigations, oiled wildlife, international conservation.
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From page 140... ...
Initiatives with Academic Health Partners North Carolina State University, College of Medicine, aquatic animal health, and Veterinary Medicine epidemiology: education and research. University of Florida, College of Veterinary Herpetofauna medicine, infectious diseases, Medicine - Wildlife Health Center wildlife pathology and toxicology, zoo medicine residency in collaboration with White Oak Conservation Center and Disney's Animal Kingdom, and tropical zoonotic disease research.
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From page 141... ...
AAWV strongly supports improved teaching programs in colleges of veterinary medicine, and more effective collaborations among wildlife veterinarians, government agencies, and wildlife resource interest groups. AAWV hosts workshops on disease diagnostic methods and an annual meeting featuring presentations of research findings and case reports.
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From page 142... ...
Such outreach work often includes training of in-country wildlife veterinarians. Zoos also use veterinary expertise in support of captive breeding programs that provide animals for collections of the source zoo and other zoos, offer opportunities for comprehensive research on the unique health challenges facing threatened and endangered species, and occasionally serve as sources of animals to restock wild areas.
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From page 143... ...
, which has the objectives of advancing preventive medicine, husbandry, and research in veterinary medicine related to captive and free-ranging wild animals; providing forums for presentation and discussion of problems related to captive and freeranging wild animals; publishing and distributing scientific information pertinent to veterinary roles with captive and free-ranging wild animals; enhancing and upholding veterinary professional ethics; and, promoting the general welfare and conservation of captive and free-ranging wildlife. AAZV membership has steadily grown in recent years: there were 524 members in 1988, 754 in 1998, and 915 in 2008 (Dr.
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From page 144... ...
There were also 102 student members. Among the members of IAAM are veterinarians who work in aquaria and marine parks, other aquatic animal health veterinarians, and other experts.
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From page 145... ...
Because many veterinary schools involve their students in clinical work with wildlife presented for care and because many wildlife rehabilitation centers offer externship opportunities, there does not appear to be a shortage of veterinarians with the skills necessary to work in wildlife rehabilitation. Environmental, Wildlife, and Ecological Toxicology Environmental toxicology is often conceptualized as the study of the effects of contaminants from the outdoor environment or the food system on human health.
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From page 146... ...
The major way that preventive medicine in environmental, wildlife, and ecological toxicology is achieved is through regulation coupled with informed and responsible stewardship choices by manufacturers and users of chemicals. Understanding the complex effects of contaminants on cells, tissues, organs, body systems, organisms, and interactions among organisms, not only in the traditional ecological context, but also in the context of the ecology of infectious disease requires veterinarians to collaborate with other experts.
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From page 147... ...
. Wildlife must not only compete with one another to find food, nesting sites, and mates, but also care for their young, avoid predation, and contend with infectious disease entities.
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From page 148... ...
Many North American veterinary students currently enter into DVM programs intent on careers that address the needs of wildlife and conservation medicine. About a third of students currently accepted into the DVM program at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine expressed an interest in wildlife or zoo medicine, a reflection of their identity as part of the "Animal Planet generation" (Jonathan Foreman, University of Illinois, personal communication, 2009)
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From page 149... ...
Many wildlife veterinarians work in integrated programs of preventive medicine and research that simultaneously protect the health of wildlife, domestic animal, and human populations, in what might be called a "cross-sectorial" approach (Osofsky et al., 2008)
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From page 150... ...
Led by the University of California at Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, its coalition includes the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Wildlife Trust, the Smithsonian Institution, the World Organiza tion for Animal Health, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, and the Global Viral Forecasting, Inc. The second group received a 5-year grant exceeding $150 million for the RESPOND project to develop outbreak investigation and response training technologies.
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From page 151... ...
. Most felt that their veterinary education would have benefited from courses in wildlife health, zoo medicine, wildlife handling, and ecosystem health.
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From page 152... ...
In addition to the need for inclusion of some core aspects of wildlife and ecosystem health into veterinary curricula, there is a need to establish more graduate training opportunities in endangered species conservation, One Health epidemiology and preventive medicine, shared infectious diseases, wildlife pathology, and wildlife, ecological, and environmental toxicology in veterinary academia. Box 7-5 outlines examples of essential concepts that would be encompassed in core and elective content in wildlife and ecosystem health education.
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From page 153... ...
Many of the faculty members of veterinary schools whose research programs are funded by NIH play important roles in core and elective courses needed by veterinarians, and those funds support basic research, laboratory animal medicine, pathology, infectious diseases, toxicology, epidemiology, and other fields that advance One Health. However, given that the risks of infectious and toxicologic diseases are shared by humans and animals, it is consistent with the NIH mission to support the study of diseases that affect humans and other species, as well as the mechanisms of disease prevention at an ecosystem level.
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From page 154... ...
Additional user fees on hunting and fishing, for example, could support the training of wildlife and ecological specialists in veterinary medicine and related research programs. The chaos of interdependent global societies of the early 21st century, with soaring human populations, climate change, exotic species invasions, overharvest of wildlife, infectious disease outbreaks, and chemical contamination, has created opportunities for veterinary medicine to be more relevant than at any other time in history.
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