Pathologist examining a crow dead from West Nile Virus (copy right ABC news)
After working for more than 15 years both as an ecologist and as a wildlife vet in deer ecology, conservation and management, I am finally moving on.
For years, my dream has been to link my careers as a wildlife veterinarian with my work as a professional ecologist. This new, emerging, discipline (Conservation Medicine) is exactly doing that these days.
What is Conservation Medicine?
Conservation medicine is an emerging field that focuses on the intersection of the environment, human and non-human hosts, and pathogens. At its core, conservation medicine champions the integration of techniques and partnering of scientists from diverse disciplines.
Why the recent fuss on wild animal health and conservation medicine?
Well, here are a few facts for you:
- Fruit bats found has natural reservoirs for Ebola virus in Congo and Gabon (Nature, December 2005) (more here)
- The next big human pandemic catastrophe (Avian Influenza H5N1) is predicted to happen soon. The role of wild migratory birds on this is not completely understood (more here).
- The origin of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) was recently discovered in wild frugivorous bats in Asia in 2005 (more here).
- A fungal disease is linked with the global decline in amphibian populations world-wide (more here)
- Increasing global wildlife trade (both legal and illegal) and the human encroachment in some of the last frontiers of civilization on earth are strongly linked with the recent appearance of several human and animal EID world-wide (more here)
- West Nile Virus reached the USA through New York in 1999. Three years later it was wide-spread in most of North-America (US, Canada and Mexico) causing both human, wildlife and domestic animal fatalities (more here)
So, what the heck am I doing now?
Well, I just came back to my native Mexico in January 2005 after completing my PhD and living in England for more than 6 years. After reincorporating in ECOSUR-Campeche in April 2005 and re-adapting to the humid tropics (once more!), my goals are:
To launch a wildlife health and conservation medicine program in the southeast of Mexico with emphasis in:
1. Monitoring health in selected wildlife (vertebrate) populations.
2. Monitoring emerging and re-emerging infectious (EID) diseases.
3. Predicting the impact of selected EID in the conservation of biodiversity.
4. Designing studies in tropical wildlife disease ecology.
5. Training and teaching postgraduate students in these areas.
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Why the south-east of Mexico to study wild animal health?
The south-east of Mexico has a unique opportunity to study wildlife diseases (in particular emerging infectious diseases) because it provides with a natural background ideal for designing and implementing monitoring programs within a "healthy landscapes/unhealthy landscapes" theoretical framework. Many areas here have been disturbed by humans for generations, yet some areas (such as Calakmul and La Lacandona rainforest reserves) have been little disturbed by Homo sapiens until very recently.
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BUSCANDO ESTUDIANTES (PARA TESIS DE LICENCIATURA, MAESTRIA Y DOCTORADO, ASI COMO SERVICIO SOCIAL, PRACTICAS PROFESIONALES Y VOLUNTARIOS) EN LAS AREAS DE BIOLOGIA, MEDICINA VETERINARIA Y ECOLOGIA PARA INTEGRARSE A ESTE PROGRAMA DE INVESTIGACION!
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LOOKING FOR UNDERGRADUATE AND POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS (IN BIOLOGY, VETERINARY MEDICINE AND ECOLOGY) TO JOIN US IN THIS EXCITING NEW PROGRAM!
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More information soon! Keep tuned!
Mas información en breve! Visita esto con regularidad si estas interesado!
Close-up of an insectivorous bat in Campeche
