Course on Conservation Medicine 2013 / Curso en Medicina de la Conservación 2013

  Photo: Students of the 2009 course releasing trapped opossums in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve
To see pictures and stories of previous courses click here:
2009
2008

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WILD ANIMAL HEALTH AND CONSERVATION MEDICINE

2013 COURSE,

October 14th- November 8th, 2013

El Colegio de la Frontera Sur

ECOSUR

Campeche, Mexico

This is a postgraduate course that is part of the ECOSUR curricula in M. Sc. (Natural Resource Management) with a 6 credits equivalence.

Please take note of this:

DEADLINE FOR EXTERNAL STUDENT APPLICATIONS:

JUNE, 30TH, 2013 (limited for a max of 5 -five- external students)

Students from abroad, please look at the possibility of scholarships with the following institutions (click in the following links):

UNESCO

SRE

WWF

In the past, we have got students from Europe, Central and South-America sponsored by some of these institutions. Please write to me well in advance if you require any letter of acceptance or support.
International students looking for accommodation please look at these hostal possibilities in the historical city of Campeche (links) and mention that you come from ECOSUR, then let us know to negotiate a possible discount:

Hostal del Mono (Monkey youth hostal)

Hostal San Carlos

Course Program:

Download it in PDF

The main goal of this course is to introduce the student to four major emerging disciplines in conservation biology that are having more and more importance for professionals in natural resource management. These are: Wild Animal Health, Conservation Medicine, Ecological Epidemiology and Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Aims:

After completing the course, the students are expected to have:

1. Acquired the theoretical basis of Conservation Medicine in order to apply them in preliminary evaluations of wild animal health.
2. Understand the relationships between wild animal health, ecosystem health and public health.
3. Conceptual understanding of the methods used in Ecological Epidemiology.
4. Acquired knowledge on the main emerging infectious, zoonotic, and prevalent diseases affecting the health of wild animal populations, the ecosystems where they live and public health in Mexico and the world.
5. Acquired the basic methodological tools to be able to perform preliminary evaluations in wild animal health populations within the principles of Conservation Medicine.

COURSE PROGRAM (SHORT VERSION):

1. Wild Animal Health

a) Health as an integrative concept.

b) The relationships between wild animal health, ecosystem health and public health.

c) Historical background.

d) The relationship between conservation biology, wildlife management and wild animal health

2. Conservation Medicine

a) Another crisis discipline?

b) Origins of the discipline

c) Ecosystem health, biomedical research and conservation

e) Zoonoses, biodiversity and conservation

f) Health of terrestrial ecosystems (selected topics)

g) Health of marine ecosystems (selected topics)

3. Ecological Epidemiology: basic principles in amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.

a) An introduction to basic epidemiological terminology and concepts.

b) An introduction to the ecology of wildlife diseases.

c) An introduction to diagnostic pathology.

d) Necropsy procedures.

e) General wildlife capture, handling and immobilization procedures.

e) Specimen and sample collection and preservation

f) Procedures in clinical diagnosis

g) Wildlife health monitoring procedures

h) Wildlife health emergency procedures

4. Emerging infectious diseases (EID).

a) Importance of the study of emerging infectious diseases.

b) Emerging infectious diseases and global climate change.

c) Emerging infectious diseases and the conservation of biological diversity.

d) EID, wildlife trade and consumption and the health of global human populations.

e) Case studies in EID:

Reptiles and amphibians:

Chytridiomicosis and the global decline in amphibian populations.

Salmonellosis

Birds:

West Nile Virus in America south of Mexico.

Plasmodium and the birds of Hawaii

Mammals:

Rabies in wild mammals

Canine distemper in wild carnivores worldwide.

Free case studies (student seminars)

MAIN TEACHING ACTIVITIES:

The course is mostly theoretical with two major practical sessions at the end of the course.

1. The main professor will be teaching most of the basic topics through power-point presentations.

2. It is expected the participation of several invited speakers for special topics in particular during the section 3 of the course.

3. The students will be preparing and exposing the case studies on EID that would be sorted with a draw at the beginning of the course.

4. One visit to a wild animal park is planned to critically evaluate the wildlife health conditions and facilities.

5. The main practice of necropsy procedures and sampling management will be carried out in a local Animal Pathology laboratory with which a formal agreement has been arranged.

6. Students taking this course as part of the PhD program of ECOSUR or other will receive extra tutorial time for the discussion of papers and research activities.

STUDENT EVALUATION:

Students taking the course will be evaluated as follows:

30% Participation (essays and assignments)

40% Preparation and presentation of seminars.

30% Final examination (written, multiple option and all comprehensive)

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CURSO EN SALUD DE VIDA SILVESTRE Y MEDICINA DE LA CONSERVACION

2013

Octubre 14 al 8 de Noviembre de 2013
El Colegio de la Frontera Sur
ECOSUR
Campeche, México
Este es un curso de posgrado (niveles de Maestría y Doctorado en la curricula de ECOSUR) con una equivalencia nacional de 6 créditos

Por favor tomen nota de lo siguiente:Estudiantes externos de México por favor revisen si su institución académica esta en el programa ECOES (haz click para ir a link) y el curso no tiene ningún costo entonces (con excepción de sus gastos de manutención (hospedaje y alimentos en Campeche) y prácticas de campo.

FECHA LÍMITE PARA INSCRIPCIONES ESTUDIANTES EXTERNOS (lugares limitados para 5 estudiantes externos): 
EL 30 DE JUNIO DEL 2013

Programa del curso:

Bájalo en PDF

OBJETIVO(S) DE LA ASIGNATURA:

El objetivo general de este curso es introducir al alumno a cuatro disciplinas emergentes en conservación biológica que cada día tienen más relevancia en los quehaceres de los profesionales en manejo de recursos naturales. Estas son: La Salud de fauna silvestre, la medicina de la conservación, La epidemiología ecológica y las enfermedades emergentes.

Objetivos particulares:

1. El alumno adquirirá las bases teóricas de la Medicina de la Conservación para realizar evaluaciones de salud de fauna silvestre.

2. El alumno entenderá la relación de la triada entre salud de fauna silvestre, salud de ecosistemas y salud pública.

3. El alumno comprenderá los principios metodológicos de la Epidemiología y Epizootiología ecológicas.

4. El alumno adquirirá conocimientos sobre las principales enfermedades emergentes, prevalentes y zoonóticas que afectan la salud de la fauna silvestre, los ecosistemas y la salud pública en México y el mundo.

5. El alumno adquirirá las herramientas metodológicas para realizar evaluaciones preliminares de salud de vida silvestre con base en los principios de la Medicina de la Conservación.

TEMAS Y SUBTEMAS:

1. Salud de Fauna Silvestre

a) La salud como un concepto integral.

b) Relación entre la salud de fauna silvestre, la salud de los ecosistemas y la salud pública.

c) Antecedentes históricos

d) Relación entre las disciplinas de biología de la conservación, manejo de fauna silvestre y el estudio de la salud de fauna silvestre.

2. Medicina de la Conservación

a) ¿ Otra disciplina emergente de crisis?

b) Orígenes de la disciplina

b) Salud de ecosistemas, investigación biomédica y conservación

e) Zoonosis, biodiversidad y conservación

f) Temas selectos en salud de ecosistemas terrestres

g) Temas selectos en salud de ecosistemas marinos

3. Epidemiología ecológica: principios básicos en anfibios, reptiles, aves y mamíferos

a) Introducción a la terminología epidemiológica básica

b) Introducción a la ecología de las enfermedades de fauna silvestre

c) Introducción a la patología diagnóstica

d) Procedimientos de necropsia

e) Procedimientos generales de captura, contención e inmovilización de fauna silvestre.

f) Procedimientos de toma y preservación de muestras biológicas para diagnóstico clínico.

g) Procedimientos de diagnóstico clínico

h) Procedimientos de monitoreo de la salud de vida silvestre

i) Procedimientos de emergencia epizootiológica.

4. Enfermedades emergentes

a) Importancia del estudio de las enfermedades emergentes

b) Enfermedades emergentes y cambio climático global.

c) Enfermedades emergentes y la conservación de la diversidad biológica

d) Enfermedades emergentes, trafico y consumo de fauna silvestre y su relación con la salud publica mundial

e) Estudios de caso de enfermedades:

Reptiles y anfibios:

Chytridiomicosis y la declinación mundial de anfibios

Salmonelosis

Aves:

Virus del Oeste del Nílo (VON)

Plasmodium y las aves de Hawai

Mamíferos:

Rabia en mamíferos silvestres

Moquillo canino y carnívoros silvestres

Casos libres (seminarios por los estudiantes)

ACTIVIDADES DE APRENDIZAJE:

1. El profesor realizará exposiciones de temas y subtemas con apoyo en material audiovisual (diapositivas, películas y presentaciones en Power Point).

2. Se invitará a dos catedráticos con amplia experiencia en temas particulares de relevancia para la asignatura para la exposición de seminarios específicos. Los invitados serán contactados e invitados con anticipación.

3. Los alumnos prepararán los estudios de caso (enfermedades emergentes) a manera de seminarios. Para esto se sortearán los temas a principios del curso entre los alumnos.

4. Se llevará al cabo dos visitas: una a un centro de diagnóstico en patología animal y otra a un criadero de fauna silvestre para evaluar las facilidades existentes en ambos para evaluar posibles brotes de enfermedad.

5. Se llevará a cabo una práctica de necropsias y toma de muestras (idealmente en anfibios, reptiles, aves y mamíferos) en un centro de patología animal local con el cual existe un convenio de colaboración.

6. En el caso de estudiantes de doctorado, se realizarán actividades tutoriales extra (hasta por una máximo de 2 horas por sesión) para la discusión de artículos, actividades de investigación y/o participación en proyectos actuales de investigación sobre la temática del curso.

EVALUACION DEL CURSO:

El curso será evaluado en base a los siguientes puntos:

30% Participación (10%, asistencia, 10% tareas y 10% ensayos)

30% Preparación de seminarios y exposición.

40% Examen final

El examen final será escrito y de opción múltiple e incluirá todo el material de lectura, clases y seminarios.

Biodiversity may protect against spread of disease / La biodiversidad podría protegernos contra las enfermedades y su dispersión

An excelent paper entitled: Biodiversity decreases disease through predictable changes in host community competence was published in Nature by Pieter Johnson and col. This paper is probably the best scientifically speaking and the one that presents the strongest evidence for this somewhat controversial topic.
You can found the original paper here.

An excelent read about this paper can also be found here at the AAAS blog Quaia

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Un excelente artículo titulado: La Biodiversidad disminuye la enfermedad por medio de cambios predecibles en la competencia inmunológica de la comunidad de hospederos, fue publicado por Pieter Johnson y colaboradores en el último número de la revista Nature aquí. 

Este artículo es probablemente el mejor qua hay hasta ahora y el que presenta la evidencia científica más sólida sobre este tema un tanto controversial.

Pueden leer también una muy buena reseña de este artículo en el blog de la AAAS Quaia aquí

Another MTB vid in Campeche /Otro video de MTB en Campeche

Whale watching at Guerrero Negro BCS

This is a GoPro edit of a recent trip to Baja where I had the amazing chance to go whale watching at Laguna Ojo de Liebre in Guerrero Negro BCS with the guys from CONANP at El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve. Set in HD and enjoy!
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Este es un video editado de las tomas con el GoPro de un reciente viaje a Baja California donde tuve la oportunidad de ir a observar Ballenas Grises en la laguna Ojo de Liebre en Guerrero Negro, BCS. Gracias al personal de CONANP en la Reserva de la Biósfera del Vizcaino. Poner en HD y espero lo disfrutes!

Cats kill billions of animals per year / Los gatos matan billones de animales silvestres al año

 by Tia Ghose, LiveScience

Cats kill billions of birds every year and even more tiny rodents and other mammals in the United States, a new study finds. According to the research, published today (Jan. 29) in the journal Nature Communications, cats kill between 1.4 billion and 3.7 billion birds and between 6.9 billion and 20.7 billion small mammals, such as meadow voles and chipmunks.

Though it's hard to know exactly how many birds live in the United States, the staggering number of bird deaths may account for as much as 15 percent of the total bird population, said study co-author Pete Marra, an animal ecologist with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

Marra and his colleagues are looking at human-related causes for bird and wildlife deaths in the country, from windmills and glass windows to pesticides.
But first, Marra and his team looked at the impact of the feline population, one of the biggest putative causes of bird demise in the country.

While past studies had used critter cams or owner reports to estimate the number of birds killed by cats, those studies were usually small and not applicable to the entire country, Marra told LiveScience.

For this broader analysis, the team first looked at all prior studies on bird deaths and estimated that around 84 million owned-cats live in the country, many of which are allowed outdoors. (In Photos: America's Favorite Pets)

"A lot of these cats may go outside and go to 10 different houses, but they go back to their house and cuddle up on Mr. Smith's lap at night," Marra said. Based on an analysis of past studies, the researchers estimated that each of those felines killed between four and 18 birds a year, and between eight and 21 small mammals per year.

Ride Positive: a MTB manifesto

Awesome film of mtb in the Swiss alps. This guy is a very good videographer.

Ride Positive. A Mountainbike Manifesto. from Filme von Draussen on Vimeo.

New tick-borne disease discovered / Nueva enfermedad transmitida por garrapatas

from Yale News here :

A new tick-borne infection that shares many similarities with Lyme disease has been discovered in 18 patients in southern New England and neighboring New York by researchers at the Yale Schools of Public Health and Medicine. The report is published in the Jan. 17 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
It is the first time that the disease — so new that it does not yet have a name — has been confirmed in humans in the United States.

Blood tests were used to detect evidence of infection by a bacterium that is found in deer ticks and is related to the one that causes Lyme disease. The researchers found positive results for the new infection in 21 percent of 14 patients with unexplained summertime febrile illness, 3 percent of 273 patients with Lyme disease or suspected Lyme disease, and 1 percent of 584 healthy people living in areas where Lyme disease is endemic.

Yale scientists discovered the bacterium, known as Borrelia miyamotoi, in deer ticks from Connecticut more than a decade ago. In 2011, they published the first evidence of human infection in Russian patients. The current study was designed to determine whether human infection occurs in the United States.

“While many symptoms are similar to Lyme disease, patients also may experience other symptoms, such as relapsing fever,” said Dr. Peter Krause, senior research scientist at the School of Public Health and primary author of the study. Although blood tests for Lyme disease will not detect infection with the B. miyamotoi bacterium, antibiotic treatment should be the same as for Lyme disease, Krause said. All patients in the study were from the Northeast, but researchers believe cases may occur in other areas of the country where Lyme disease is endemic because the bacterium has been found in about 2 percent of all ticks that transmit Lyme disease. “This is the first time we have found an infectious organism carried by ticks before we have recognized the disease in humans,” said Durland Fish, professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health and the study’s senior author. “We usually discover new diseases during an epidemic and then try to figure out what is causing it.” Fish and his Yale colleagues specialize in tick-borne diseases with an emphasis on environmental surveillance for ticks and tick-borne pathogens.

MTB in Campeche

Una selección de videos cortos de MTB en las rutas de selva baja cercanas a Campeche. Riders: Arturo & Manuel Weber. Trails: Ciclopista, San Agustín Ola, Linea CFE, Camino a Uayamón via Exhacienda Chivic & Chiná todas cerca de la ciudad de Campeche, Mexico. Music copyrights: Credence Clearwater Revival, Radical Face (own). Filmado con un GoPro Hero2. Editado con Imovie en una a Macbook Pro. Disfrutenlo!
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An edited selection of short vids of mountain biking in jungle trails in Campeche, Mexico. Riders: Arturo & Manuel Weber. Trails: Ciclopista, San Agustín Ola, Linea CFE, Camino a Uayamón via Exhacienda Chivic & Chiná all close to Campeche City, Mexico. Music copyrights: Credence Clearwater Revival, Radical Face (own). Shot with a GoPro Hero2. Edited with Imovie in a Macbook Pro. Thanks for watching!