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7
Veterinarians in Wildlife and Ecosystem Health
INTRODUCTION
Life forms including humans, other animals, plants, and microbes are interdependent;
together with the non-living environment they comprise ecological systems. Wildlife species in
those systems have intrinsic value and are connected to human health and wellbeing. 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), the growing incidence of wildlife and zoonotic diseases (Daszak et
al., 2000; Jones et. al., 2008), and the impacts of environmental contaminants such as mercury
(Pacyna et al., 2006), toxins from harmful algal blooms (Anderson et al., 2002), endocrine
disruptors, including ubiquitous polybrominated diphenyl ether flame retardants (Blazer et al.,
2007; Guillette, 2006; Ross, 2005), and carcinogens (Martineau et al., 2002). These hazards
directly affect humans and animals, causing food deprivation, epidemics of infectious diseases,
altered sexual development, thyroid abnormalities, neurologic impairment, liver and other organ
failures, a range of cancer, and psychological stress. Indirect exposure to toxic and infectious
stressors can occur by way of the consumption of animals, for example, fish and shellfish, in
which harmful chemicals and pathogens accumulate.
Human-Wildlife-Ecosystem Connection
The number of Americans whose lives include a focus on wildlife and the amount of
private sector expenditures related to wildlife are remarkable. In 2006, for example, more than
87 million Americans of age 16 years and older enjoyed some form of wildlife-related recreation
and, in pursuit of these activities, spent $122 billion, about 1% of the U.S. gross domestic
product (GDP) (FWS, 2007). This economic activity depends on an abundance of healthy
wildlife, which is beautiful to witness, and for those who hunt and fish, bountiful and safe for
human consumption. Recognizing and preventing the impacts of principal stressors that
undermine the health and reproduction of animals in the wild is a core responsibility for wildlife
and ecological veterinarians, but the challenges are significant, and the number of veterinarians
in this sector of the profession is relatively small. In the United States, many species of
invertebrates, fish, amphibians, birds, and mammals are threatened with extinction. Unless
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124 Workforce Needs in Veterinary Medicine
wildlife stewardship improves, wildlife recreation, and its economic benefits, will be
undermined.
As a group of animals that are free to move about, wildlife can carry diseases to and from
domestic animals and people. Examples include diseases such as influenza, which often arises in
wild birds and infects domestic poultry, swine, and other species, and brucellosis, which
originated in cattle and is now found in elk and bison. Wildlife diseases such as West Nile virus,
Lyme disease, and Hantavirus infection are also a threat to human health. 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.
Wildlife and ecological veterinarians therefore have key roles to play in limiting the risks of such
diseases through surveillance, diagnosis, and implementation of control measures.
Veterinary expertise in wildlife and ecosystem health is essential for efficient exploration
of the interactions that underlie these complex phenomena as well as their broader implications
for public (human) health, but the number of veterinarians involved in this sector at present is
relatively small. While veterinarians are spear-heading an interdisciplinary approach to
understanding the health effects of mismanaged ecosystems, greater effectiveness will depend on
the priority that colleges and schools of veterinary medicine place on educating future
veterinarians to expand their knowledge and influence in this field and on the resources available
to support research, advanced training, and responsible environmental stewardship. A new
paradigm for veterinary education will be necessary, requiring courage and effort on the part of
the profession’s leaders to reverse the divergence of the human and veterinary public health
agencies over the last 30 years (Salman, 2009) and to acknowledge the relationships among the
environment, the health of wildlife, domestic animals, and humans.
These relationships form the foundation of the “One Health” initiative
(http://www.onehealthinitiative.com), a co-equal collaboration of physicians, veterinarians,
conservation biologists, ecologists, and other scientific and health-related disciplines (Sherman,
2002; Kahn et al., 2007; Kaplan et al., 2009). Endorsed by the American Medical Association,
the American Society for Tropical Diseases and Hygiene, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, and the American Veterinary Medical Association, One Health seeks to support a
holistic concept of health that recognizes the complex linkages among diseases of humans,
livestock, poultry, and wildlife (See Box 7-1).
The EcoHealth Alliance (which until September, 2010, was called the Wildlife Trust),
established in 1971, was among the earliest to address the essential links among human, animal,
and ecosystem health (Daszak et al., 2004). In 2004, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
drew attention to the plight of wildlife in an increasingly crowded world as well as to the related
growing health risks from trade in wildlife and bush-meat. WCS outlined these concerns in “The
Manhattan Principles” (Box 7-2), and recommended that wildlife health science should become
an essential component of global disease prevention, surveillance, monitoring, control, and
mitigation.
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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 interconnected. The challenges associated with this dynamic are
demanding, profound, and unprecedented. While the demand for animal-based protein is expected to
increase by 50% by 2020, animal populations are under heightened pressure to survive, and further loss of
biodiversity is highly probable.
On top of that, of the 1,461 diseases now recognized in humans, approximately 60% are due to
multi-host pathogens characterized by their movement across species lines. And, over the last three
decades, approximately 75% of new emerging human infectious diseases have been zoonotic. Our
increasing interdependence with animals and their products may well be the single most critical risk
factor to our health and well-being with regard to infectious diseases.
There is a growing concern that the world's latest generation could be the first in history to
experience a reduction in life expectancy and health in general. Yet, veterinary and human medicines are
considered separate entities and the obvious links between them frequently ignored. According to the
KPMG study, "The Current and Future Market for Veterinarians and Veterinary Medicine in the United
States," published in May of 1999, "our traditional approaches and past requisite skills and levels of
knowledge may not be commensurate with the rapid changes and new demands of food-animal industries
and the shifting requirements needed for the corporate and public opportunities in the future. These
include public health, biomedical research, and the global food system."
The Need for a Holistic, Collaborative Approach
One strategy to better understand and address the contemporary health issues created by the
convergence of human, animal, and environmental domains is the concept of One Health. Although the
concept of One Health is not new, our increasing interdependence with animals and their products has
spurred the medical and veterinarian professions to readdress such an approach. This approach would
encourage the collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally, and globally, to
attain optimal health for people, animals, and our environment.
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, environmental 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. One Health calls for the collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines working
locally, nationally, and globally to attain optimal health for people, animals and our environment.
SOURCE: AVMA, 2008.
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126 Workforce Needs in Veterinary Medicine
BOX 7-2
The Manhattan Principles on “One World, One Health”
Recent outbreaks of West Nile Virus, Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever, SARS, Monkey pox, bovine
spongiform encephalopathy , and Avian Influenza remind us that human and animal health are intimately
connected. A broader understanding of health and disease demands a unity of approach achievable only
through a consilience of human, domestic animal and wildlife health - One Health. Phenomena such as
species loss, habitat degradation, pollution, invasive alien species, and global climate change are
fundamentally altering life on our planet from terrestrial wilderness and ocean depths to the most densely
populated cities. The rise of emerging and resurging infectious diseases threatens not only humans (and
their food supplies and economies), but also the fauna and flora comprising the critically-needed
biodiversity that supports the living infrastructure of our world. The earnestness and effectiveness of
humankind’s environmental stewardship and our future health have never been more clearly linked. To
win the disease battles of the 21st Century while ensuring the biological integrity of the Earth for future
generations requires interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral approaches to disease prevention, surveillance,
monitoring, control and mitigation, as well as to environmental conservation more broadly.
We urge the world’s leaders, civil society, the global health community and institutions of science
to:
1. Recognize the essential link between human, domestic animal, and wildlife health and the threat
disease poses to people, their food supplies and economies, and the biodiversity essential to maintaining
the healthy environments and functioning ecosystems we all require.
2. Recognize that decisions regarding land and water use have real implications for health. Alterations in
the resilience of ecosystems, and shifts in patterns of disease emergence and spread manifest themselves
when we fail to recognize this relationship.
3. Include wildlife health science as an essential component of global disease prevention, surveillance,
monitoring, control, and mitigation.
4. Recognize that human health programs can greatly contribute to conservation efforts.
5. Devise adaptive, holistic, and forward-looking approaches to the prevention, surveillance, monitoring,
control, and mitigation of emerging and resurging diseases that take the complex interconnections among
species into full account.
6. Seek opportunities to fully integrate biodiversity conservation perspectives and human needs (including
those related to domestic animal health) when developing solutions to infectious disease threats.
7. Reduce the demand for and better regulate the international live wildlife and bushmeat trade not only to
protect wildlife populations but to lessen the risks of disease movement, cross-species transmission, and
the development of novel pathogen-host relationships. The costs of this worldwide trade in terms of
impacts on public health, agriculture, and conservation are enormous, and the global community must
address this trade as the real threat that it is to global socioeconomic security.
8. Restrict the mass culling of free-ranging wildlife species for disease control to situations where there is
a multidisciplinary, international scientific consensus that a wildlife population poses an urgent,
significant threat to human health, food security, or wildlife health more broadly.
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9. Increase investment in the global human and animal health infrastructure commensurate with the
serious nature of emerging and resurging disease threats to people, domestic animals, and wildlife.
Enhanced capacity for global human and animal health surveillance and for clear, timely information-
sharing (that takes language barriers into account) can only help improve coordination of responses
among governmental and nongovernmental agencies, public and animal health institutions,
vaccine/pharmaceutical manufacturers, and other stakeholders.
10. Form collaborative relationships among governments, local people, and the private and public (i.e.,
non-profit) sectors to meet the challenges of global health and biodiversity conservation.
11. Provide adequate resources and support for global wildlife health surveillance 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.
12. Invest in educating and raising awareness among the world’s people and in influencing the policy
process to increase recognition that we must better understand the relationships between health and
ecosystem integrity to succeed in improving the prospects for a healthier planet.
SOURCE: Cook et al., 2004.
ROLES OF VETERINARIANS IN WILDLIFE AND ECOSYSTEM HEALTH
Veterinarians make important contributions to zoos, wildlife conservation, and
ecosystems by focusing their efforts on the health of species ranging from coral (Work et al.,
2008) and other invertebrates (Lutz-Collins et al., 2009) to fishes (Goldberg et al., 2003),
amphibians (e.g. Lips et al., 2006; Rohr et al., 2008), reptiles (Katsu et al., 2010), birds (Franson
et al., 2007), and mammals (e.g. rodents to bats, carnivores, ruminants, whales, and primates
including humans) (Martineau et al., 2002; Goldberg et al., 2007, 2008). In the wildlife sector,
veterinarians are increasingly confronted with the consequences of environmental contaminants
and infectious disease outbreaks that potentially threaten wild and domesticated animals as well
as humans. Because of the breadth of regions, species, and problems involved in the currently
accelerating “sixth extinction” (Pimm et al., 1995; Raven, 2002; IUCN, 2008), veterinarians
have abundant challenges, but the pathways to employment are typically non-traditional.
Determining with precision how many veterinarians are employed in jobs related to
wildlife and ecosystem health is challenging because the data are not captured in any one place,
such as the membership list of the American Veterinarian Medical Association (AVMA).
Although AVMA includes some veterinarians who identify themselves as working on exotic
animals and wildlife, others are more likely to be members of specialty groups, such as the
American Association of Zoo Veterinarians (AAZV), the American Association of Wildlife
Veterinarians (AAWV), and the Wildlife Disease Association (WDA). The latter includes
veterinarians and others, wildlife biologists, for example, who do not hold DVM degrees. Other
veterinarians who work on wildlife and ecosystem health might be affiliated only with specialty
bodies, such as the American College of Veterinary Pathologists (ACVP), which do not
distinguish members according to types of animals investigated or the research environment.
Some pathologists, for example, work only on domestic animals, others only on rodents or
primates, and still others on a host of species including terrestrial and aquatic wildlife. The
number of veterinarians in state and federal agencies with missions that are primarily oriented
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128 Workforce Needs in Veterinary Medicine
toward wildlife and ecosystem health is easier to determine, and the total number in these
agencies is small.
It is also difficult to predict the number of jobs available for veterinarians in this sector in
the future, in part because of the diversity and specificity of the situations that generate demand.
In contrast to other sectors of the profession, preparation for jobs in this sector can be a greater
challenge because animal populations, ecosystems, and their interactions with human activities
differ by state and by region. Some jobs may not be classified as requiring a DVM, but could be
filled by veterinarians. In spite of very broad legislated responsibilities, the federal and state
agencies responsible for wildlife and ecosystem health do not show signs of meaningful
expansion of their veterinary staffs; however, these agencies readily admit that their current
veterinary expertise is inadequate to fulfill their missions. Until expertise for DVMs in this sector
becomes an explicit and a well-identified demand, graduates of veterinary schools will need to
define their own niche in wildlife and ecosystem health by identifying and filling a need, and by
establishing the added value they bring to an existing position as a DVM.
Employers of veterinarians involved in wildlife and ecosystem health include federal and
state agencies and laboratories, public and private universities, non-governmental organizations
(NGOs), and zoos, aquaria, and marine and wildlife parks that may be publicly or privately
operated. Because many of these institutions have common over-arching goals and conduct
similar types of activities in which veterinarians are engaged, the roles of veterinarians in
wildlife and ecosystem health can be best understood in the context of their major areas of
responsibility, which include: 1) health management of free-ranging wildlife populations; 2) zoo
animal medicine; 3) aquatic wildlife and marine mammal health; 4) wildlife rehabilitation; and
5) environmental, wildlife, or ecological toxicology. The careers of veterinarians who assume
such responsibilities may focus on diagnostics, basic and applied research, and/or stewardship
activities.
The following section describes each of those categories of veterinary activity, identifies
the major employers in each category, and estimates the numbers of veterinarians employed.
Information is also provided about membership in relevant associations, which gives a partial
picture of the numbers of veterinarians in these fields.
Health Management of Free-Ranging Wildlife Populations
Veterinarians whose jobs are concerned with the health of free-ranging wildlife
populations include specialists in epidemiology, pathology, infectious diseases, toxicology,
reproductive biology, pharmacology, relocation, anesthesiology, endangered species
management and reintroductions, public health, and clinical medicine. They often have expertise
in more than one of the above specialties and work in team settings with specialists in other
fields. 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. Preventing the movement of diseases between wildlife and domestic species
might, for example, involve the vaccination of wildlife (as with raccoon rabies in the United
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Global Food Security 129
States) or the use of alternative strategies such as vaccinating domestic food and companion
animals, locating food-animal production facilities rationally, and reducing contact between
domestic and wild animals.
There are a number of federal, state, university, and cooperative programs focused on
wildlife diseases in the United States but not all states are involved. Some programs cooperate
with Canadian organizations (Figure 7-1).13,14
FIGURE 7-1 Locations and sponsorship of North American programs devoted to disease investigations
involving free-ranging fauna (state, federal, and university cooperative programs).
SOURCE: Friend, 2006. Reprinted with permission from M. Friend, USGS (emeritus).
Veterinarians in the Department of the Interior
Veterinary jobs related to free-ranging wildlife exist in several agencies. On federal
lands, the Department of the Interior assumes a measure of responsibility for wildlife health and
control. Nevertheless, in 2008, the agency reported having just 24 veterinarians, more than half
in the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Only 4 veterinarians were identified in the Fish and
13
The Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, University of Georgia, Athens provides diagnostic and
other wildlife disease services for member wildlife conservation agencies in the states of: AL, AR, FL, GA, KS,
KY, LA, MD, MS, MO, NC, OH, OK, PA, SC, TN, VA, WV among its program activities.
14
Canadian wildlife biologists are assisted by the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre (CCWHC) program
located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Western/Northern Canada), and have been since its establishment in 1992.
Each of the Canadian Provincial Schools of Veterinary Medicine maintains a component of the program.
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130 Workforce Needs in Veterinary Medicine
Wildlife Service (FWS), and only 4 were employed by the National Park Service (NPS) (GAO,
2009).
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. The USGS’ National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC),
located in Madison, Wisconsin, coordinates programs across the United States to respond to
emerging and resurging diseases in wildlife. Their attention was initially focused on top priority
health issues that influenced the sustainability of waterfowl (Friend and Franson, 1999) and
hunted mammals (e.g. cervids), and over time has expanded substantially to include other
vertebrates, including such divergent groups as fishes, amphibians, raptors, bats, and marine
mammals. The mission of NWHC is to provide “information, technical assistance, research,
education, and leadership on national and international wildlife health issues (NWHC, 2012).”
Veterinarians with FWS perform fish health management and diagnostic activities;
conduct wildlife disease surveillance, perform diagnostic work and outbreak investigations;
provide technical expertise; and draft policy, regulation, and management action plans.
Similarly, the NPS veterinarians prepare surveillance and contingency response plans for
addressing important wildlife diseases in the national park system and formulate policies for
management of wildlife disease NPS has an active One Health collaboration between its Wildlife
Health Program and Office of Public Health. Focus areas of that effort include unified disease
surveillance, interdisciplinary response, a combined research agenda, and consensus guidance.
In a recent General Accountability Office (GAO) study of veterinarians in the federal
government, USGS reported that the agency faces difficulty hiring veterinarians to address
wildlife diseases, including those that kill many animals in a single outbreak, because the salaries
they can offer are not competitive with funding for positions in the private sector. As a
consequence, both FWS and NPS, the latter having responsibility for 84 million acres of the park
system, reported having too few veterinarians to meet their needs (GAO, 2009).
Veterinarians in State Wildlife Agencies
Most states have agencies that are concerned with wildlife health and management. These
range from departments of agriculture or natural resources to fish and game agencies. In 2009,
the committee contacted the relevant agencies in each state to determine how many of them
employed veterinarians. As indicated in Table 7-1, only 19 states were found to have one or
more wildlife veterinarian(s).
Although it might seem obvious that veterinarians can make contributions to the mission
of state wildlife agencies, few job openings in this sector explicitly seek individuals with DVM
degrees at this time. As described in Box 7-3, state employers’ awareness of the potential role for
veterinarians in wildlife management may only come about when they have had positive
experience with what the profession can offer.
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University Programs
Numerous colleges and schools of veterinary medicine have organized centers and
educational programs that address wildlife. 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. Table 7-2 lists several active university-based
programs that focus on wildlife, each with a different emphasis. Note that there is overlap in the
training of veterinarians for work with free-ranging wildlife and wildlife in captive settings.
TABLE 7-1 States with Wildlife Agencies that Employ Veterinarians, and Numbers of
Veterinarians Employed in 2009
State Wildlife Agency Number
Alaska Department of Fish and Game 1
Arizona Game and Fish Department; Research Branch Veterinarian 1
California Department of Fish and Game 5
Colorado Division of Wildlife 3
Delaware Department of Natural Resources 1
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission 3
Idaho Department of Agriculture 2
Maryland Department of Natural Resources/ State Wildlife Vet 2
Michigan Department of Natural Resources 1
Missouri Department of Conservation 1
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks 1
Nevada Department of Agriculture 1
New York State Department of Health 1
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife 2
Pennsylvania Game Commission 1
Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries 1
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife 1
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources 2
Wyoming Game and Fish Department 2
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BOX 7-3
Defining the Role of the Wildlife Veterinarian
The value of hiring veterinarians in wildlife health has been demonstrated by at least one
veterinarian who took a non-traditional path to employment in a state agency. Dr. Melody Roelke-Parker
accepted a job as a wildlife biologist for the State of Florida, and applied her veterinary knowledge and
skills to examine endangered Florida panthers, a subspecies of cougar (Puma concolor), revealing
through her work their poor fertility and a number of abnormal physical characteristics. Dr. Roelke-Parker
reached out to new collaborators, such as Dr. Stephen O’Brien, Chief of the Laboratory of Genomic
Diversity at NIH, and they discovered that the animals were highly inbred and genetically impoverished
(Roelke-Parker et al., 1993). Ultimately, this discovery prompted introduction of new genes from Texas
cougars (historically a part of the same metapopulation), and this successfully offset health problems of
the Florida animals. After Dr. 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
currently, Florida employs three wildlife veterinarians. The recognition of the need for veterinary
expertise became apparent after understanding how veterinarians can contribute to the agency’s goals.
TABLE 7-2 Examples of University-based Wildlife Programs
University Program Areas of Emphasis
University of California, Davis - Wildlife Wildlife health stewardship, avian
Health Center influenza management, disease
investigations, oiled wildlife,
international conservation. All
involve outreach, management,
research, and training.
University of California, Davis - Masters in Population health, food safety, public
Preventative Veterinary Medicine Program health and zoonoses, wildlife disease
and ecology, ecosystem health,
international health, and independent
topics.
University of California, Davis - The Avian Flu Education, research, prevention, and
School response to avian influenza in
wildlife, poultry, and humans.
University of California, Davis - Veterinary Residency in Zoological Medicine in
Medical Teaching Hospital collaboration with the San Diego Zoo,
the San Diego Wild Animal Park, the
Sacramento Zoo, and SeaWorld.
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University Program Areas of Emphasis
University of California, Davis - The Public health, disaster preparedness.
Emergency Preparedness - ESCAPE
(Enhancing Surge Capacity and Partnership
Effort) Project
University of California, Davis - Calvin Diversity in future veterinary student
Schwabe One Health Project bodies, broadening veterinary
education.
University of Georgia - The Southeast Diagnostic and research efforts with
Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study emphasis on new disease entities or
diseases that threaten the
sustainability of wildlife groups or
individual species.
Tufts University, Cummings School of Care of wild animals and federally
Veterinary Medicine - Wildlife Medical Clinic endangered species and research.
University of Calgary, College of Veterinary Global health research, and
Medicine -Capstone Course ecosystem, global, and One Health
conceptual frameworks.
University of Illinois, College of Veterinary Care of injured wildlife with the goal
Medicine - Wildlife Medical Clinic of release of native species back into
the wild.
University of Illinois, Zoological Pathology Terrestrial and aquatic wildlife
Program, Residency in Zoo Medicine, problems, with education, outreach,
Experiential Education for Veterinary Students and research in zoos and/or in the
in Zoo Medicine wild, locally, regionally, and
internationally. Residencies in zoo
medicine and zoo and aquatic animal
pathology in collaboration with the
Brookfield and Lincoln Park Zoos
and the Shedd Aquarium.
University of Tennessee, College of Veterinary Medical and surgical services,
Medicine - Avian and Zoological Medicine research and education in exotic
Service animal and zoo animal health
including residency training in zoo
and wildlife medicine.
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138 Workforce Needs in Veterinary Medicine
Membership of Veterinarians in the International Association for Aquatic Animal
Medicine (IAAAM)
In 2008, there were 498 members of the International Association for Aquatic Animal
Medicine (IAAAM) which included 12 institutional memberships (Pacifique Rugira, IAAAM,
personal communication, 2009). The total number of those with a DVM degree was 301. 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. IAAAM,
which does not keep data on membership changes over time, describes itself as “an organization
of individuals who are professionally interested in and devote a significant amount of time to the
practice of aquatic animal medicine, teaching and research in aquatic animal medicine, or the
husbandry and management of aquatic animals” (www.iaaam.org). There is a fish health subunit
of the organization. Marine mammal health specialists are also well represented within IAAAM.
As noted in its website (www.iaaam.org), DVMs and PhDs comprise most of its
leadership. IAAAM hosts an annual meeting, which includes scientific presentations, wet labs,
and a proceedings document. Also, IAAAM members have a voice through the AVMA
Committee on Environmental Issues as well as the Marine Mammal Unusual Mortality Event
Working Group of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The organization has
a monthly newsletter and offers guidance to students interested in careers in aquatic animal
health.
Wildlife Rehabilitation
Veterinarians work with a wide array of wildlife rehabilitation facilities in the United
States, in which the diversity of species and funds available for their care necessitate both
flexibility and resourcefulness. The work involves both hands-on medicine and surgery for the
animals presented for care as well as population health studies based on data collected from
those animals. Veterinarians serve in both clinical and administrative roles, and they may guide
aspects of public education and outreach programs. The size of the veterinary workforce
dedicated to wildlife rehabilitation is unclear. Some states guide the public to approved wildlife
rehabilitation facilities where veterinary care is accessible. For example, Massachusetts has
established a network of wildlife rehabilitators and veterinarians
(http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/wildlife/rehab/wildlife_rehab_index.htm); and in Wisconsin,
wildlife rehabilitators must enter into a written agreement with a consulting veterinarian in order
to be licensed (http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/wildlife/Whealth/rehab/VetAgree-
2300298a.pdf).
Veterinarians in Wildlife Rehabilitation Associations
The National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association (NWRA), headquartered in St. Cloud,
Minnesota, reported a total membership of 221 in 1984, which increased to 781 in 1988, and
almost 1,800 in 2009 (NWRA, 2012). Members of NWRA range from interested beginners who
work at their homes to experienced wildlife professionals who administer large wildlife
rehabilitation centers. Based on its membership survey, NWRA indicated that 30% of its
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members were veterinarians, veterinary students, or veterinary technicians; however, it did not
distinguish among these groups. Other members included individuals who were affiliated with
zoos or humane societies, and those who work as educators and biologists. NWRA did not
provide information about compensation for the veterinarians, veterinary technicians or others
who lend their expertise to the centers’ activities.
In 2002, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued 2,164 Special Purpose Rehabilitation
Permits (NWRA, 2010) and thousands of rehabilitators (including many volunteers) operate
under states’ permitting processes for state-protected non-migratory species. NWRA estimates
that more than 75% of the animals cared for by their members have been harmed by human
activities. The NWRA website states that approximately 64,,000 birds, 39,000 mammals and
2,300 herptiles (reptiles and amphibians) were treated by 343 NWRA survey respondents in
2007; and that release rates were 60% for birds, 72% for mammals, and 69% for herptiles
(NWRA, 2012).
In addition, respondents to a NWRA membership survey indicate that they handled more
than 250,000 wildlife-related telephone calls. Among the major stressors listed by NWRA as the
basis for presentation of wildlife to their centers are: destruction of nest trees, vehicle collisions,
unrestrained pets, illegal or legal wild “pet” trading, deliberate or accidental poisonings (includes
petroleum), window collisions, and non-target trapping or shooting. Although the members of
NWRA focus on individual wild animals, rather than entire populations and their habitats, they
also invest efforts in educating the public about wild animals—both as individuals with inherent
value, and as part of the intertwining web of life.
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. However,
humans routinely isolate themselves from some toxic exposures, washing their bodies, filtering
their air, purifying their water, and eating a diverse diet. Free-ranging animals are not similarly
protected. Because of their training and experience in comparative medicine, as well as the
routine back-and-forth extrapolation between animal and human toxicologic processes,
veterinarians are well suited to careers in environmental, wildlife, and ecological toxicology
(Beasley, 1993, 2009).
Toxicology encompasses the study of all adverse, chemically-mediated effects of all
elements and compounds on all life forms. Ecology encompasses the study of myriad complex
interactions, not only among species, but also with the non-living components of the
environment. Thus, ecotoxicology necessarily encompasses the chemically-mediated adverse
effects of all chemicals on all the non-human, non-domesticated life forms, and on all of their
interactions with one another as well as with the non-living environment. Because of all the
species and interactions involved, ecotoxicologists have to make recommendations based on
incomplete knowledge. Variables include the suite of chemicals involved, their concentrations in
different locations, the climate and time of year, and the biotic communities at risk. The major
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140 Workforce Needs in Veterinary Medicine
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 ecology of infectious disease context, relies on ongoing collaborations
among a range of experts, including veterinarians. Veterinarians function in wildlife and
ecological toxicology through roles in diagnostic medicine, research in mechanistic and applied
toxicology, pathology, epidemiology, and regulatory medicine.
There are many ways by which veterinarians and others in environmental, wildlife and
ecological toxicology focus their careers. They may specialize in a toxicant group, such as heavy
metals, hazardous wastes, pesticides, endocrine disruptors, or polyaromatic hydrocarbons—
among many others. They may focus on monitoring for exposure and impacts in regard to
damage to a given body system or organ (e.g. nervous system, gonads, reproductive tract,
kidneys, or respiratory systems). They may address immunotoxicity and the incidence/severity of
diseases from viruses, bacteria, fungi, or parasites. Alternatively, they may focus on the indirect
effects of contaminants (via impacts on plants, the microbial environment, or “micropredators”
that normally consume pathogens or vector species).
Few toxicologists, other than veterinarians, are taught about infectious diseases, body
systems pathology, and clinical pathology in a differential diagnosis context. When veterinarians
work with others to examine free-ranging animals comprehensively, combining contaminant
monitoring in environmental media with assays of residues in tissues, measures of body
condition, gross and histologic lesions, parasites and microbial pathogens, they find unique
associations among contaminant exposures and other health threats (Rohr et al., 2008).
One problem with such a comprehensive approach to research is the high costs of
logistical deployment of teams of collaborators with sophisticated instrumentation. Another
challenge is that the multiple permutations that occur in the “real world” cannot all be replicated
efficiently in the lab. Such expense and complexity form the basis for the assessment that the
concentration at which chemicals are toxic not only to mammals, birds, fishes, reptiles and
amphibians, but also to invertebrates and native microbes, is an important consideration in
evaluating risks related to chemicals released from human activities into natural areas (corridors,
streams, reserves, etc.). 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. Since this occurs not only in pristine areas, but also in crowded, physically-
degraded, habitat remnants, there is a greater need than ever to protect them from additional
disabilities related to exposures to chemical contaminants.
Veterinary Membership in Environmental Toxicological Associations
The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), which focuses on
wildlife and ecological toxicology, was founded in 1979 to develop “principles and practices for
protection, enhancement, and management of sustainable environmental quality and ecosystem
integrity”(SETAC, 2012). Its members address problems related to chemicals through research,
analysis, regulation, product substitution, and education. SETAC convenes an annual meeting for
scientists, managers, and other professionals to learn from each another through poster and
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platform presentations, and publishes the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.
SETAC membership has increased from 230 charter members in 1980 to nearly 5,000
members at present, representing all 50 states of the United States, 13 Canadian provinces, and
more than 70 countries worldwide. Another indication of growth is that participants at SETAC
annual meetings increased from 470 in 1980 to more than 2,500 in 2003. SETAC membership
includes nearly equal representation from industry, government, and academia. SETAC does not
sort its members based on their training, and thus the percentage of members with veterinary
degrees is unavailable. Because of the global reach of toxicants and the value of harmonization
of environmental standards, SETAC has fostered sister organizations, including SETAC/Europe,
SETAC Asia/Pacific, and SETAC/Latin America. SETAC established a Foundation for
Environmental Education and a SETAC World Council to promote international communication
of environmental issues. SETAC members and other ecotoxicologists focus on reconciling
agriculture, forestry, mining, industry, and urban/suburban management with ecological
stewardship.
THE FUTURE SUPPLY OF VETERINARIANS FOR JOBS IN WILDLIFE AND
ECOSYSTEM HEALTH
In advising students with interests in careers involving zoos, wildlife, conservation,
ecosystems, and environments (including human-dominated ones), and in deciding how to
allocate limited slots in DVM classes, a number of questions arise. Is the job market to
accommodate the interests of such students meager, or instead, is it elastic, and able to capitalize
on additional inputs of veterinary knowledge and skills? Does society need and will it hire more
veterinarians focused on wildlife health, conservation medicine, ecosystem health, and
environmental health? Finally, if there are substantial numbers of jobs that would pay acceptable
salaries for veterinary medical expertise, how can veterinary students and veterinarians most
readily become aware of and prepare for them?
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).
While about 30% of the students in the DVM program initially volunteer to work in the
College’s Wildlife Medical Clinic, at present only about two or three accept zoo- or wildlife-
related positions immediately after graduation. This apparent disjunction may result because the
novelty of working with wildlife recedes with time, the students are discouraged by faculty
members who suggest that job opportunities involving wildlife are exceedingly few, and there
are few advertisements for wildlife and ecosystem health specialists. Graduates might be seeking
job positions that do not exist—i.e., ones that explicitly call for veterinary expertise—instead of
identifying jobs they can fill regardless of the title.
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142 Workforce Needs in Veterinary Medicine
Defining Positions in Wildlife and Ecosystem Health
Most veterinary students were not aware of the field of wildlife and ecosystem health 30
years ago, but student interest has grown dramatically in recent years and some students have
created their own programs of study. Few wildlife and ecosystem health jobs are clearly labeled
to target veterinarians, there is no job “guarantee” after training, and few are available in
academia (Patricia Conrad, University of California at Davis, personal communication, 2008).
Individuals who get training in this field may need to be mobile and persistent.
Veterinary graduates who maintain an interest in wildlife and ecosystem health take a number of
pathways into the field. Some, for example, take an internship (often in small animal medicine
and surgery) and then a residency in zoo medicine to qualify for employment in a zoo. Others
decide to focus on the accelerating structural, biotic, and functional changes in environments—
for the sake of free-ranging wild animals as well as their fellow human beings.
Of course, there are opportunities to involve veterinarians who usually work on domestic
animal patients as specialists in pathology, small animal, equine, and food-animal medicine and
surgery through collaborative projects that address needs in wildlife health. Such collaborations
address a wide array of disease phenomena, trauma to endangered species, as well as control of
overpopulation of wildlife in crowded habitats. Among the innovations in recent years along
these lines are the collaborations between wildlife veterinarians and veterinary surgeons in
development of techniques for minimally-invasive vasectomies of bull elephants in areas of
southern Africa where elephant populations have the capacity to devastate plant communities
with secondary effects on a host of other species. Wildlife veterinarians and veterinary surgeons
have developed and refined the necessary techniques and proven their safety and efficacy. They
are currently in the process of training in-country specialists to take the lead.
Success in the pursuit of wildlife medicine in academia can come about through
involvement in public health and/or ecosystem health. For some individuals, preparation for such
careers may include completing a Masters in Preventive Veterinary Medicine degree focused on
wildlife, and for others it may include finishing a PhD that involves aspects of public health in an
ecological context, such as focusing on vector reservoirs. Some DVM/PhD students who began
their graduate work with a specific interest in wildlife health eventually become associated with
public health organizations, such as state departments of public health or the federal Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. A new and important area of specialization for which specially
trained veterinarians are well-equipped is disease ecology. For those who want to discover new
knowledge needed in many aspects of wildlife and ecosystem health or, in the even more
integrative discipline of One Health, a PhD and postdoctoral training can be invaluable.
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). The
intensifying wildlife-livestock-human interface is increasingly motivating actions that have the
potential to simultaneously protect public health and also biodiversity and agricultural
biosecurity. Osofsky and his colleagues suggest that wildlife health and ecological sustainability
depend on societal “buy-in” that is most reliably achieved when humans derive multiple health
and economic benefits in the process. Ensuring such benefits and effectively communicating
them has therefore become a core competency for some wildlife and ecosystem health
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specialists. An example of this kind of cross-sectorial approach to infectious disease is described
in Box 7-4.
BOX 7-4
Cross-Sectorial Approach to Emerging Infectious Diseases
In 2009, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) developed an unprecedented set of
initiatives under its Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) program to help the world preempt future pandemics at their
source. The focus is to prevent the emergence of, prepare for, avoid, and better mitigate infectious diseases that
move between wildlife and people, such as H1N1 pandemic influenza, avian influenza, SARS, and Ebola. The EPT
program consists of 5 projects: PREDICT, RESPOND, IDENTIFY, PREVENT, and DELIVER. USAID funded two
large 5-year grants under its PREDICT and RESPOND initiatives. The first group, PREDICT, received more than
$60 million over five years to develop a global emerging infectious disease early warning system. Led by the
University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, its coalition includes the Wildlife Conservation
Society, the Wildlife Trust, the Smithsonian Institution, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the Food
and Agricultural Organization (FAO) 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. Its partners include the Tufts University's Cummings School of Veterinary
Medicine, University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, Development Alternatives, Inc., Training and
Resources Group, and Ecology and Environment Inc.
SOURCE: USAID, 2009, 2010.
Protecting the health of populations of free-ranging wild animals is a different (and
arguably greater) challenge than protecting the health of groups of domesticated or laboratory
animals. With all species of non-human animals, responsibilities for health are shared—
commonly involving veterinarians in leadership roles—with ample dependence on others. With
domesticated animals, the others who influence health are generally owners of the animals who
provide the economic resources for their care. In contrast, free-ranging wildlife are not owned by
individuals or small groups of people; in accordance with state and federal laws, they are a
public trust resource held by the government for the benefit of all citizens (Organ et al., 2010;
Prukop and Regan, 2005). Laws and regulations that triggered this now long-standing but still
evolving legal tradition came about after over-exploitation of wildlife, often for commercial
purposes. Today, state wildlife agencies have authority for wildlife and wildlife management on
most lands, not just in state parks and reserves. NPS has authority for wildlife in national parks,
and FWS has general authority for migratory bird management. International laws dealing with
wildlife stewardship responsibilities include the Migratory Bird Treaty, which was signed in
1916, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora, which was signed by 80 nations in 1973, and which now has 175 signatories (Prukop and
Regan, 2005). The application and refinement of those laws are key to the successful restoration
and maintenance of healthy wildlife populations.
The economic resources available to influence the health of wildlife on public and private
lands depend in large measure on programs of state and federal agencies, but the health of
wildlife is also influenced by the choices and related investments of private land-owners.
Overall, determining where monies will come from for wildlife health endeavors is dependent on
understanding governmental authorities, the related funding streams, and the attitudes,
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144 Workforce Needs in Veterinary Medicine
incentives, and disincentives that influence private land holders. Funding, of course, is also
dependent upon political constituencies and thus on the knowledge and interests of influential
members of the public and their elected officials.
Wildlife are viewed very differently by different stakeholders, such as groups of
individuals whose livelihoods or forms of recreation depend on harvest of the animals (fishing,
hunting), and people who view the animals themselves in different ways—such as parts of
natural beauty and essential to human well-being, or alternatively as pests, competitors, threats,
or of such limited importance that their suffering and demise should be dismissed. Moreover, the
same individual may regard different species, or even different individuals within a species, in a
variety of ways, depending on where, how often, and how many of the animals are encountered.
The wildlife and ecological veterinarian, therefore, is often a member of a team or agency that
will encounter pressures to help sustain and enhance numbers of some species and to limit the
numbers of other species.
As a “transdisciplinary” professional, today’s wildlife and ecological health veterinarians
must collaborate with others, such as other health professionals (other veterinarians,
epidemiologists, physicians, public health specialists, technicians and technologists), as well as
wildlife managers, wildlife biologists, conservation biologists, ecologists, engineers, business
leaders, private citizens, and policy makers. Depending on the situation, any of these
stakeholders may exert crucial influence that determines whether the health management of
wildlife and ecosystems will be effective. Accordingly, good interpersonal dynamics and
diplomacy are often key components for success in wildlife and ecosystem health.
Educational and Training Needs
In a study of 87 wildlife veterinarians, 16 job seekers, 22 students, and 7 employers
exploring the relevance of veterinary training to work experiences, only 39% of respondents
reported that the training they received prepared them for their jobs (Mazet et al., 2006). Most
felt that their veterinary education would have benefited from courses in wildlife health, zoo
medicine, wildlife handling, and ecosystem health. “Mentorship with an experienced wildlife
veterinarian, training in leadership and communication, courses and externships in wildlife
health, and additional formal training beyond the veterinary degree” was considered important in
preparation for success (Mazet et al., 2006).
Despite the involvement of faculty members of several colleges of veterinary medicine in
wildlife and ecosystem health, the vast majority of time and effort of the veterinary schools is
devoted to preparing small animal practitioners, which increasingly obstructs preparation to meet
the new opportunities and challenges of other aspects of veterinary medicine. Veterinarians who
will serve in wildlife and ecosystem health roles will not need so much insight into common
ailments of companion animals as methods to prevent an outbreak of avian influenza from
spreading between wildlife and domestic poultry or swine populations, how to re-establish
diverse genetics in endangered native vertebrates, or how to re-introduce threatened species into
previously occupied and rehabilitated habitat. Unless curricula, course offerings, and licensing
examinations emphasize some of the key concepts related to wildlife and ecosystem health, the
education of wildlife and ecosystem health veterinarians may remain a mystery to most
veterinary students and most members of veterinary faculties. In addition to the need for
inclusion of some core aspects of wildlife and ecosystem health into veterinary curricula, there is
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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
BOX 7-5
Knowledge and Career Competencies in Wildlife and Ecosystem Health
Conservation of indigenous wildlife populations with attention to genetic diversity and fitness in both disease
resistance and reproduction.
Infectious disease ecology, surveillance, control, and preventive measures at the wildlife-domestic animal and
wildlife-human interface.
The design, implementation, study, and refinement of rehabilitated aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems
characterized by reduced threats of toxicologic and infectious diseases and invasive species, as well as
improvements in biodiversity.
Siting and management of food-animal production medicine in ways that enable recovery of biodiversity in
nearby agricultural landscapes, natural areas, streams, corridors, and buffer zones.
The diagnosis and prevention of the adverse impacts of chemical pollutants through knowledge and skills in
clinical and diagnostic veterinary toxicology, regulatory toxicology, environmental toxicology, and
wildlife/ecological toxicology.
examples of essential concepts that would be encompassed in core and elective content in
wildlife and ecosystem health education.
Recognizing the importance of the concept of One Health, even veterinary students
interested solely in domestic animals could benefit from better training in population health,
epidemiology, and ecosystem health, including: 1) how patterns of disease occurrence and
transmission are a function of population sizes, contact rates, local biodiversity and vector
involvement; 2) how failings at the wildlife-domestic animal interface enable spillover of
infectious agents from domestic animals to wildlife, and spillback from wildlife to domestic
animals; 3) how accumulation of toxicants in household, farm, and regional environments puts
domestic animal, human, and wildlife populations at risk of acute and chronic illnesses; and, 4)
how new technologies and coordinated efforts for surveillance, assessment, control, and
prevention of diseases can simultaneously protect domestic animal, human, and wildlife
populations.
For One Health to be more readily understood and capitalized on as a way to reconcile
ecological stewardship responsibilities with economically-viable food-animal production and
improved public health, there is a need to have more interactions among veterinary students and
medical students and among veterinary and human health faculties. Accordingly, teaching
students in overlapping sections in histology, physiology, epidemiology, infectious diseases,
basics of pharmacology and toxicology, and preventive medicine seems to be both timely and
logical. Also, fusion of meetings of toxicology and wildlife health groups with meetings of
mainstream human and veterinary medical specialists, cancer epidemiologists, endocrinologists,
and other experts would also be helpful in creating a greater understanding of the shared risks
and the underlying sources of health impairment that arise in the global and local environment.
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Support for Training for Veterinary Careers in Wildlife and Ecosystem Health
A number of short courses, such as Envirovet, Aquavet, Aquamed, and Marvet (described
in detail in Appendix F) have helped veterinary students develop the skills to deal with multiple,
often interacting, stressors that undermine the health and sustainability of different types of
wildlife populations and communities. Such courses provide knowledge, skills, and mentors
needed for specialization in wildlife and ecosystem health.
Convening students and faculty from a host of locations in the United States and abroad,
these intensive short courses are uniquely flexible to adapt their teaching to fill important voids
in training not met through openings in degree, internship, and residency programs in
universities. Well over a thousand veterinary students and veterinarians have been trained in
these programs. Future support for these courses and for new offerings in aquatic ecotoxicology
and terrestrial wildlife and ecosystem health could catalyze greater application of veterinary
expertise in wildlife and ecosystem health to address emerging needs.
Veterinary schools have the potential to be leaders in the evolving discipline of One
Health if faculty positions, graduate programs, and research projects on wildlife and ecosystem
health receive greater emphasis. 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. There
may an appropriate role for the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support some elements of
research and education in wildlife and ecosystem health at veterinary colleges and schools to
address endangered species and disease emergence at the ecosystem level. In addition to funding
for research by graduate and postdoctoral students, support for professional degree DVM
participation in summer projects and hourly jobs in wildlife and ecosystem health is also needed.
The interests of numerous state and federal agencies (such as state departments of natural
resources or environmental protection, DOI, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Department of
Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) overlap with the
educational needs of veterinary students interested in this field. There is an opportunity for these
agencies to increase their collaboration with universities to expand and guide capacity building,
internship, and research programs in wildlife and ecosystem health.
Foundations and non-governmental organizations that value wildlife as components of
the world’s natural heritage for ecotourism, or for fishing and hunting, could also play a role in
fostering research and education in the United States as well as international partnerships in
training and stewardship. 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. Protecting wildlife and ecosystem health
through organized surveillance and stewardship is essential because of the intrinsic value of
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wildlife and biodiversity. Such protection is also essential to maintain native species in their
traditional roles as food, as species that regulate ecological productivity, as sentinels of
environmental health threats, and as objects that enable us to understand the underpinnings of
life.
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