CONSERVATION MEDICINE PIONEERS

Since its inception, the Conservation Medicine program at Wildlife Trust has pioneered the new discipline of Conservation Medicine through international, collaborative research that focuses on understanding the ecology of wildlife disease and the links to human health, ecological health and conservation of biodiversity.

The program’s research has been instrumental in revealing the impact of emerging diseases of marine wildlife populations. Our international network brings applied solutions to field practitioners of Conservation Medicine accomplished through transdisciplinary teams, innovative research, scientific excellence, and long-term monitoring of sentinel species. Our goal is to influence education and policy resulting in the conservation of biodiversity.

OUR HISTORY:
In 1996 Wildlife Trust established an International Field Veterinary Program, and in 2000, its successor, the Conservation Medicine Program. This program brings applied solutions to field practitioners of conservation medicine worldwide to address wildlife health in an ecological context.

Highlights

• In 1996, Wildlife Trust initiated the first institutional effort to pioneer the field of Conservation Medicine to confront the challenge of understanding the ecology and mitigation of disease emergence and dispersal among species;
• In 2000, Wildlife Trust scientists led the first professional Conservation Medicine meetings to define the field;
• In 2002, Wildlife Trust scientists led the publication of the first edited volume in the field and built the first transdisciplinary team of Conservation Medicine scientists.
• Wildlife Trust, in conjunction with the Consortium for Conservation Medicine, established the Ecohealth Journal and Society, which focus on issues of conservation medicine, human health and ecosystem sustainability.
• Our Conservation Medicine team served as senior editors of Helminths of Wildlife: A Global Perspective, and has published more than 150 professional papers in peer-reviewed journals on leading topics including wildlife management, wildlife immobilization, conservation medicine, marine pathology, wildlife epidemiology and molecular biology.
• Over the past five years, we have conducted more than 40 workshops and courses worldwide in conservation medicine.
• We have supported the development of conservation medicine within the curricula of five veterinary colleges in Brazil, one forestry university in Chile and one medical school in Mexico.
• We are leading a major effort to develop post-graduate degrees in conservation medicine with the Escuela Superior de Medicina, Instituto Politécnico Nacional in Mexico. Similar efforts are ongoing in Brazil and Chile. We currently have seven graduate M.S. and Ph.D. students in Brazil, Colombia, India, Mexico and United States, in formal graduate training.
• The program has led in the development of similar curricula at U.S. institutions, including Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and Columbia University (Columbia Environmental Research Center: CERC). Graduate courses are given at both institutions, and a popular module on conservation medicine is taught for CERC’s conservation biology training certificate.
• Innumerable in-country short courses and symposia have trained hundreds of veterinarians, biologists, ecologists, public health personnel and many professional students.