Wildlife Health Talks: Recent Episodes
WDA Communications Committee
This is the podcast of the Wildlife Disease Association (WDA, https://www.wildlifedisease.org). Our host Dr Catharina Vendl chats with wildlife health professionals including researchers, vets, pathologists and more, about the joys and challenges of their job and the emerging issues of wildlife health locally and worldwide. All of our guests have a longstanding affinity with the WDA and a true passion for wildlife in common. So brush up your knowledge of current wildlife issues and One Health with Wildlife Health Talks.
Who could believe a blue-tongued lizard can teach you how to be a good human being? Professor Anne Poelina can, and by the end of this episode you might too.
For International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, we're re-playing Anne's Carlton Herman Memorial Lecture from the 2024 WDA conference in Canberra. A Nyikina Warrwa woman, scientist, filmmaker and poet, Anne is the inaugural chair of the Martuwarra Fitzroy River Council in Western Australia's Kimberley, and she has spent decades arguing that you cannot separate land, water, people and non-human kin.
Her talk, "Waking Up the Snake", is about waking up consciousness: why the Whanganui's legal personhood puzzled her elders, why the destruction of habitat to create a "nature repair market" makes no sense, and why the wildlife health community, already practised at caring for things that can't speak for themselves, might be exactly the audience she needs. Ancient wisdom, hard politics, and a stubborn coalition of hope.
Links
Check out Anne Poelina's website.
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
What if the birds you walked past this morning were quietly fighting off bacteria that have been devastating poultry farms for decades, and you'd never know, because they show absolutely no signs of being sick?
That's what Dr. Maria Teresa Reinoso Perez discovered when she started looking inside seemingly healthy house finches in Mexico. More than 70% of the birds she sampled were carrying Mycoplasma gallisepticum - a pathogen that causes severe disease in US bird populations, yet not one of them looked ill. The infections were invisible from the outside, but their immune systems told a very different story. In this episode, Maria Teresa takes us from her hometown of San Luis Potosí, where she handled her very first finch as an undergraduate, to Cornell and back - explaining why finding a poultry pathogen quietly circulating through wild ecosystems matters for all of us, what won her the 2026 BioOne Ambassador Award, and what she's chasing next in the Galápagos.
Links
Read Maria Teresa's essay on her research on finch leukocytes that won her the BioOne Ambassador Award!
Maria Teresa's website and social media:
- website
- X
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
In Iran, there is no established path for a veterinary student who wants to work with wildlife. So Arman Nourishirazi and his teammates built one.
Based in Ahvaz, in the province of Khuzestan, Arman is a final year vet student in one of the richest bird regions in the Middle East, where the Persian Gulf coast, vast wetlands and the Eurasian African Flyway all converge. Working with his university's veterinary hospital and the local Department of Environment, he helped create a system that treats injured wild birds and gives other students a way into a field that was effectively closed to them.
The patients range from eagles and barn owls to white storks and great white pelicans. Arman also talks us through the first documented case of avian malaria in a cattle egret in Iran, and the creative fix he and his team came up with when two juvenile barn owls refused to eat and human imprinting was the last thing they could risk.
Links
Check out Arman's LinkedIn and Instagram profiles.
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
What happens when a parasite learns to survive the deep freeze? In this episode, host Cat Vendl talks with parasitologist Cody Malone about Trichinella, the tiny worm behind your grandmother's warnings to cook pork through, and a real hazard for Canada's northern communities who rely on wild game.
Cody shares how this strange nematode completes its entire life cycle in a single host, why freezing meat won't kill it, and how it can lurk in a frozen carcass for years. Along the way: a newly named species discovered on a Yukon mountain, a globe-trotting parasite that turned up in an Alaskan grizzly via what may have been a cruise ship landfill, and the surprising idea that a thriving Trichinella population can actually signal a healthy ecosystem. It's detective work, food safety, and Arctic ecology all in one, an unexpectedly gripping tour of life in the frozen north.
Links
Learn more about Cody's fascinating work on his Researchgate and LinkedIN profile.
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
How do you find out which animals a mosquito has been biting? You start by thinking like one. In this episode, biologist Elizabeth Linares Alcántara takes us to a public park in Mérida, Mexico, where she hunts blood-fed mosquitoes in their hiding spots and reads the DNA in their tiny abdomens to reveal who they have been feeding on, from humans and iguanas to feral cats and a neighbour's grazing goat.
The result is a "blood feeding network" that helps anticipate outbreaks of dengue and other emerging diseases. Elizabeth also shares a finding that turns intuition on its head, and offers a preview of next year's WDA conference, hosted in her own backyard on the Yucatán Peninsula.
Links
Learn more about Elizabeth's work on her ResearchGate profile.
Check out more details about next year's WDA conference in Merida, about the Latin American WDA chapter and their student chapter.
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Genevieve Barnett spends their nights caring for one of the world's most misunderstood animals. From Night Flight Rehabilitation, the bat rehab NGO they founded in Colorado, they nurse little brown bats through white-nose syndrome and gently untangle myotis caught in fishing line, one patient at a time.
But Genevieve is also asking bigger questions. Through the lens of queer ecology, they explore what we miss when we view the natural world through one narrow perspective: whose knowledge counts, whose stories get told. From butterflies that are half male and half female to lizard species with no males at all, they reveal a natural world far stranger and more diverse than mainstream science tends to admit, and they make the case that inclusion isn't a side note to One Health. It's central to it.
Link
Follow Genevieve on Instagram and learn more about their amazing bat rehab work:
@night_flight_rehabilitation
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
This episode takes us to Bangladesh, a first for the podcast, where Dr. Sabrina Ferdous is doing wildlife health research in one of the most unusual field sites you'll ever hear about: a centuries-old religious shrine, home to a critically endangered turtle found almost nowhere else on earth.
The shrine pond is visited by thousands of devotees who consider both the turtles and their water sacred. But when Sabrina and her team started investigating a troubling decline in eggs and hatchlings, they found a cocktail of zoonotic bacteria in that same water people were taking home to drink. The public health implications are hard to ignore.
Sabrina also gives us a candid look at what it means to be a pioneering female wildlife veterinarian in a male-dominated field in Bangladesh, and shares a story from a research trip that nearly ended her career before it began. Spoiler: she was back in the field within two months.
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Every day at Project Wildlife in San Diego, Briana Eisan sees the consequences of a scroll: baby raccoons scooped up by well-meaning strangers, people reaching bare-handed toward bats, wildlife encounters going viral for all the wrong reasons. As a veterinary assistant at one of the largest wildlife rehabilitation programs in the US, she's on the front lines of both disease surveillance and an quieter epidemic: the spread of wildlife misinformation online.
In this episode, Briana explores how social media shapes public behavior toward wildlife and what that means for disease transmission, animal welfare, and conservation. From naturalized Amazon parrot flocks over San Diego to the psychology behind why people anthropomorphize wild animals, she makes the case that the same platforms driving dangerous encounters can, in the right hands, become powerful tools for change.
Links
Learn more about the Project Wildlife of the San Diego Humane Society
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Northern Kenya is one of Africa's most biodiverse landscapes, and one of its most demanding places to be a wildlife vet. Dr. Sharon Mulindi, senior veterinary officer at Kenya Wildlife Service, covers a vast stretch of this arid, wildlife-rich region where a 24/7 on-call schedule is less a job requirement and more a way of life. From darting wounded lions before breakfast to treating elephant calves in the midday heat, her days rarely go as planned.
In this episode, Sharon shares the detective story behind a troubling spike in elephant deaths on the slopes of Mount Kenya, where an invasive plant quietly transformed a lush forest into a nutritional trap, and reflects on the growing pressures of climate change on Northern Kenya's wildlife and communities. She also discusses her research interests in zoonotic disease and antimicrobial resistance, and what it means to build a career as one of very few female wildlife vets in the region.
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
What happens when a wildlife vet who spent years nursing slow lorises back to health walks into a live animal market, not to rescue animals, but to sit down with the vendors selling them?
That's exactly what Dr. Wendi Prameswari does. Based in Indonesia with conservation NGO YIARI, Wendi works across two of the country's most pressing wildlife-human interfaces: the live animal markets of West Java, and the forest communities of West Kalimantan where hunting wildlife is woven into daily life. Her approach isn't to shut anything down, it's to build trust, one conversation at a time.
In this episode, Wendi shares what it takes to gain the confidence of traders who have every reason to be suspicious, why talking about COVID's economic impact opens doors that talking about viruses never could, and how a local tribe's ancient village-closing ritual turned out to be a remarkably effective form of quarantine.
Links
Learn more about Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia (YIARI), the nonprofit organization Wendi is working for here.
Read the story of 10 years of YIARI's work in slow loris conservation here.
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Dr. Justorien Rambeloniaina grew up in northeastern Madagascar watching lemurs captured and killed, not yet knowing they were among the world's most endangered primates. Today he's fighting for them on every front, reconnecting fragmented forests with a five-kilometre wildlife corridor, combating the illegal pet trade, and sharing a quietly powerful encounter with a family keeping two mouse lemurs in a yellow water container, and what happened next.
But his approach goes beyond the animals themselves. By establishing healthcare and education centres in remote villages, his team tackles the deeper drivers of habitat loss, because when communities thrive, lemurs have a fighting chance too. This is One Health conservation at its most grounded: built on community trust, shaped by personal experience, and driven by the conviction that Malagasy people are best placed to protect Madagascar's natural heritage.
Links
Learn more:
The Dr. Abigail Ross Foundation for Applied Conservation (TDARFAC)
The Lemur Freedom Project
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Six women. Five continents. Decades of experience spanning wildlife veterinary practice, disease research, government policy, and international conservation. Recorded for 2026 International Women's Day, this episode brings together an extraordinary panel to celebrate women in wildlife health, their journeys, their achievements, and their honest reflections on working in a field that hasn't always made space for them.
From Taiwan to Kenya, Wyoming to Brazil, Indonesia to Germany, our guests share what drew them to wildlife health and what they've had to navigate along the way, the subtle daily realities of male-dominated spaces, alongside the genuine optimism that comes from seeing more women enter the field and rise into leadership. Warm, funny, and deeply human, this is the kind of conversation that reminds you why community matters in this work.
Watch this episode as a video podcast on our Youtube channel here.
Learn more about our panelists:
- Dr. AiMei Chang, wildlife veterinarian and academic at the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology in Taiwan, and Secretary of the WDA Asia-Pacific section
- Dr. Sharon Mulindi, Senior Veterinary Officer at Kenya Wildlife Service and a Masters student of Conservation Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and Vice Chair of the WDA Africa and Middle East section
- Dr. Aricia Duarte-Benvenuto, veterinarian and postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratory of Wildlife Comparative Pathology at the University of São Paulo in Brazil
- Dr. Kim Gruetzmacher, Wildlife and Conservation Veterinarian, working for the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation as Head of the Division for International Nature Conservation
- Dr. Samantha Allen, Supervisor of the Veterinary Service unit (Wyoming Game and Fish Department), State Wildlife Veterinarian for Wyoming, and President of the American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians
- Dr. Fransiska Sulistyo, wildlife veterinarian and consultant specialising in orangutan conservation and rehabilitation in Indonesia, and a PhD student at Adelaide University.
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
What if the very fences built to protect livestock have been quietly driving one of Africa's greatest wildlife crises? Professor Steve Osofsky, one of the architects of the One Health movement, has spent over 30 years trying to solve exactly that problem in the vast five-nation Kavango-Zambezi Conservation Area, home to the majority of Africa's elephants.
Steve shares how WOAH’s breakthrough recognition that a biosafe beef value chain can be considered equivalent to fence-based management of foot and mouth disease risk has allowed for a paradigm shift in southern African livestock disease management for the first time in over 70 years. He also points to how reviving the lost art of herding is helping to open new markets for farmers living alongside wildlife, reducing losses to lions, and offering the possibility of restoring wildlife corridors through less reliance on fencing.
This is a story about bio-diplomacy, breaking down institutional silos, and finding win-wins in one of conservation's most stubborn standoffs. After 30 years, Steve is cautiously optimistic, and his reasoning is hard to argue with.
Links
Profile on the Cornell website
Program websites of AHEAD and the Cornell K. Lisa Yang Center for Wildlife Health
Cornell Chronicle news piece: Removing Southern African Fences May Help Wildlife, Boost Economy
Most recent paper on the issue: Using Qualitative Risk Assessment to Re-Evaluate the Veterinary Fence Paradigm within the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area
Related paper from 2013: Balancing Livestock Production and Wildlife Conservation in and around Southern Africa's Transfrontier Conservation Areas
The Manhattan Principles on “One World, One Health”: https://www.oneworldonehealth.org/sept2004/owoh_sept04.html
Watch the video version of the podcast interview here.
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
What if the key to saving more wildlife isn't treating more animals, but preventing them from ending up in hospitals in the first place? In this episode, host Dr. Cat Vendl speaks with Dr. Andrew Hill, a senior veterinarian at Currumbin Wildlife Hospital, one of the world's busiest wildlife facilities treating over 16,000 animals annually. Through his Churchill Fellowship, Andrew traveled 75,000 kilometers visiting ten major wildlife hospitals, uncovering a sobering truth: admissions are rising globally.
Discover how a Minnesota veterinarian triaged 60 cases in under two hours, why Toronto's skyscrapers now go dark during bird migration, and the staffing ratios that prevent both animal mortality and veterinarian burnout. Andrew shares transformative insights on why collaborative long-term strategies, not individual heroics, are reshaping wildlife rehabilitation worldwide.
This podcast episode is also available with the video:
https://youtu.be/7ND_jGhnMVY
Links
Learn more about Andrew's findings here.
Check out Andrew's work place, the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital here.
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Journey to Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula with wildlife veterinarian Dennise Ortiz, who tracks pumas and ocelots to answer a critical question: do biological corridors connecting fragmented forests actually work?
From midnight captures to analyzing GPS data, Dennise reveals how these cats navigate between national parks, farmlands, and dangerous roads. Meet Jerry the ocelot, who survived a car strike and reappeared days later, and experience life through Tico the puma's camera collar as he hunts and courts females across his territory.
Discover how movement data is reshaping Costa Rica's reforestation efforts and transforming local communities from viewing these apex predators as threats to becoming conservation allies in one of Earth's most biodiverse places.
Links
Learn more about the NGO Dennise works for: https://osaconservation.org/
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
From Madagascar's forests to the heart of conservation: meet Dr. Ny Aina Tiana Rakotoarisoa, a veterinarian on a mission to save critically endangered radiated tortoises while transforming how women lead in wildlife conservation.
Ny Aina reveals the hidden crisis driving thousands of tortoises into illegal trade. It's not just about their striking beauty. She explores the local beliefs, economic desperation, and gender inequality that fuel the problem, then shares how her NGO, Women Rise Wildlife Research, is training local women as conservation leaders and breaking centuries of exclusion from the field.
From the shocking realization that communities don't see themselves as owners of their own wildlife, to her vision of expanding women's involvement across Madagascar, Ny Aina offers a refreshingly honest perspective on what real conservation change looks like and why it starts with listening to the people closest to the problem.
Links
Learn more about Ny Aina's NGO 'Women rise wildlife research' here: https://wr-wildliferesearch.org/
Want to share your work with the wildlife health community? Email us (communications[at]wildlifedisease.org) and become a guest on the show!
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
What if the biggest threat to Australia's wildlife during a disease outbreak might be lying dead in the bush? Join host Dr. Cat Vendl with Niraj Meisuria, a PhD student investigating one of disease ecology's most overlooked frontiers: scavenging and carcasses.
From wedge-tailed eagles brawling over kangaroo kills to brushtail possums turning carnivorous, Niraj reveals how carcasses act as ecological 'cafés', hotspots where wild dogs, dingoes, and domestic animals converge. His research in Cape York explores a sobering scenario: if rabies reaches Australia's remote north, could carcasses accelerate its spread through dingo populations?
Discover why pathogens can persist in carcasses for months—or even years—and why understanding these hidden disease pathways could be critical for Australia's biosecurity.
Links
Check out the website Niraj's Disease Ecology Lab at Sydney Uni here.
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Dr Ana Maria Villada has spent years unraveling the mysteries of sloths—creatures so physiologically unique that they're closer to chimpanzees than they are to each other. But her work treating electrocution injuries, creating rope highways through fragmented forests, and tracking hand-raised orphans released into the wild reveals something surprising: sloths are far more adaptable than science once believed.
Right now, Ana is in Uzbekistan fighting to protect sloths from international wildlife trade. Yet back in Costa Rica, her biggest challenge isn't the dramatic rescues, it's answering a fundamental question: we still don't know if sloth populations are thriving or declining in the wild.
Discover how the Sloth Institute's "sloth speedways" benefit jaguars, monkeys, and porcupines. Hear why hand-raised sloths can survive in the wild. And learn what makes treating a three-fingered sloth 31% more complicated than treating a two-fingered one.
Links
Learn more about the Sloth Institute
Ana Maria's professional Instagram page.
Check out more details about Ana Maria's PhD at Andres Bello University, Chile.
Read the press release and information about sloth trafficking for CITES here.
UPDATE:
SLOTHS HAVE BEEN LISTED ON APPENDIX II BY CONSENSUS!!!! This is a huge win for future conservation efforts! Check out the Instagram post here.
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
By day, Dr. Alexandria Bullen treats cattle and cats at a veterinary clinic on Tasmania's rugged northwest coast. By night, she's out tracking platypuses and bandicoots in the wilderness. In this episode, host Dr. Cat Vendl meets Alex at the Australasian WDA conference to explore how she bridges clinical practice with wildlife research.
Discover why golf courses and urban dog parks are unexpected bandicoot hotspots, what a decade of platypus health monitoring reveals, and how Alex's research uncovered these marsupials' surprising cold tolerance. From her transformative Antarctic journey with Homeward Bound – where migrating seabirds reminded her how interconnected our world truly is – to volunteering with Vets Beyond Borders in Indonesia, Alex shares how stepping outside traditional veterinary roles opened doors she never imagined.
With a PhD on quoll health ahead, Alex delivers an empowering message: you don't need fancy resources or prestigious positions to contribute to wildlife health. Life is a choose-your-own-adventure, and the key is refusing to let imposter syndrome hold you back.
Links
Learn about Conservation Medicine in Regional Tasmania here
Interested to learn more about the homeward bound journey? Check it out here.
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
What if we could prevent wildlife health crises instead of always racing to respond to them? Dr. Leanne Wicker has spent decades asking this question – from anesthetizing seals in Tasmanian car parks during lunch breaks to tracking ocean temperatures through Antarctic seal movements, from nearly a decade managing confiscated wildlife during Vietnam's bird flu outbreaks to pioneering the field of veterinary ecology back home in Australia.
Through her work with critically endangered swift parrots, Leanne reveals how a single photo of a lonely nest tree standing in a logged forest transformed her approach to conservation. She's championing a radical shift: understanding that nest failure isn't just about numbers – it's about healthy parents, viable eggs, and well-fed chicks thriving in intact ecosystems. After experiencing the wildlife health frontlines across three continents, Leanne shares her vision for proactive conservation where veterinary expertise helps create conditions for wildlife to flourish, rather than waiting for disaster to strike.
Links
Check out Leanne's current employer and their work: Enviro-Dynamics
Learn more about the swift parrot project here.
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
From Peru's copper mines to penguin colonies, PhD candidate Mya Daniels-Abdulahad tracks a toxic trail that threatens an entire species. Winner of the 2025 BioOne Ambassador Award, Mya reveals how mining waste travels through ocean food chains – with iron accumulating at four times normal levels in Humboldt penguin eggs and cadmium weakening their shells.
Working between Peruvian field sites and Chicago's Brookfield Zoo, Mya uncovers how penguin embryos become trapped in "toxic time capsules" while these vulnerable birds serve as sentinels for contamination affecting entire coastal ecosystems. Discover how populations crashed from hundreds of thousands to just 16,000 birds, and why zoo surplus eggs became crucial for understanding wild population risks in this compelling One Health story.
Links
Check out Mya's winning video here
Mya's paper on the topic
Check out the lab's website Mya works with here
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Join host Dr. Cat Vendl as she follows Dr. Ralph Vanstreels tracking high pathogenicity avian influenza from South America to Antarctica. Ralph shares insights from surveying remote coastlines and documenting the virus's impact – over 600,000 wild birds and 55,000 marine mammals affected, with elephant seal populations experiencing 95% pup mortality in some colonies. Learn how viral mutations enabled the jump to marine mammals, the ecological importance of Antarctica's scavenging skuas, and the challenges of conducting disease surveillance in one of Earth's most remote regions while monitoring the virus's continued eastward spread toward Australia and New Zealand.
Links
Ralph's academic profile: https://whc.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/people/ralph-vanstreels
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Nearly one-third of all parrot species are threatened with extinction, yet most people picture these charismatic birds as noisy pets in cages rather than the complex, emotionally intelligent wild creatures they truly are. In this captivating episode, host Dr. Cat Vendl speaks with Dr. Pat Latas, a founding member of the newly founded IUCN Wild Parrot Specialist Group, whose four-decade journey spans from rescuing a tiny house sparrow as a child to working with critically endangered kakapo on remote New Zealand islands.
Pat reveals how the illegal wildlife trade has exploded into a $40-60 billion global business fueled by social media. Discover why there's a "parrot people stigma" in conservation science, how 14 naturalized parrot species are thriving in Los Angeles (with some endangered Mexican species now more abundant in California than their native range), and why Pat combines her scientific illustration skills with conservation work to protect these beloved yet threatened birds.
Links
Newly founded IUCN Wild Parrot Specialist Group
Parrot Crisis Summit
Pat’s art work
Wanna get in touch with Pat Latas? Email her here: Patricia.Latas[at]ssc.iucn.org
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
A snowstorm that closed highways led English literature student Kate Huyvaert to an unexpected path—becoming one of North America's leading experts on wild sheep disease. From discovering that 25% of albatross chicks aren't raised by their biological fathers to unraveling the devastating cycle of respiratory disease threatening bighorn sheep across the American West, Kate's journey spans fleas on prairie dogs, boobies with complete sexual agency, and the deadly mycoplasma bacteria creating chronic carriers in wild sheep populations.
Kate introduces her innovative "kaleidoscope" approach to disease ecology, moving beyond simple models to embrace the beautiful complexity of host-pathogen interactions. This episode showcases how choosing your own adventure in science can lead to transformative wildlife health research, offering hope for cracking the code on chronic disease carriers while highlighting the interconnected world of domestic animals, wildlife, and human health.
Links
https://vetmed.wsu.edu/our-team/wsu-profile/kate.huyvaert/
https://www.wildsheepfoundation.org/about/praboard
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Join host Dr. Cat Vendl as she meets Dr. Nick Doidge, zoo veterinarian and researcher, working to save the world's rarest insect – the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect, nicknamed the "tree lobster."
Thought extinct for 80 years, these living fossils were dramatically rediscovered on a volcanic rock stack in the Pacific Ocean. But after bringing them back from just two individuals, a new threat emerged: deadly bacterial infections threatening the entire captive population.
Discover how Nick has developed cutting-edge diagnostic tools to detect the pathogenic bacterial strains ahead of the insects' planned reintroduction to Lord Howe Island next year.
This episode reveals the intricate science behind saving a species that survived impossible odds on a cliff face in the middle of the ocean.
Links
Nick's profile on the One Health Research Group at Melbourne Uni
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
In honor of International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples on Aug 9, join host Dr. Cat Vendl for a special episode featuring two powerful Indigenous voices in health and healing. Meet Dr. Nicole Redvers, a member of the Deninu K'ue First Nation and Western Research Chair in Indigenous Planetary Health, who reveals how Indigenous healers have always treated humans and animals as interconnected beings. Then hear from Angaangaq, a traditional healer from Greenland whose spiritual mission is to "melt the ice in the heart of men."
From Arctic seal hunting rituals that honor life to the simple power of saying "good morning," discover how Indigenous wisdom about balance, respect, and gratitude offers essential guidance for wildlife health professionals. A transformative conversation about breaking down silos, building bridges between knowledge systems, and remembering that healing begins with recognizing our interconnectedness with all life.
Links
Learn more about Nicole's and Angaangaq's wisdom and work.
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Join host Dr. Cat Vendl as she ventures into Uganda's misty mountains to meet Dr. Nelson Bukamba, one of the world's few gorilla doctors providing life-saving veterinary care to our planet's most endangered relatives. Nelson's journey from a heartbroken 10-year-old making a promise to his dying dog Simba to treating wild mountain gorillas is nothing short of extraordinary.
From 3 AM wake-up calls to tracking gorilla families across 321 square kilometers of impenetrable forest, Nelson reveals what it's really like to provide medical care to patients who don't exactly line up for treatment. Discover how these gentle giants weathered the COVID-19 pandemic and how Nelson's cutting-edge research on "cryptic" parasites is unraveling the invisible threads connecting gorilla health to human communities. With fewer than 1,063 mountain gorillas remaining in the wild, Nelson represents a new generation of conservation veterinarians using both field medicine and laboratory science to protect our closest living relatives – one gorilla at a time.
Links
https://www.gorilladoctors.org
https://www.facebook.com/gorilladoctors
https://bsky.app/profile/gorilladoctors.bsky.social
https://www.linkedin.com/company/gorilla-doctors/
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Join host Dr. Cat Vendl as she ventures into Wyoming's vast wilderness to meet Dr. Samantha Allen, the state's wildlife veterinarian who juggles budget spreadsheets and helicopter captures of bighorn sheep. From her unforgettable first WDA conference moment wielding a Stryker autopsy saw on a porpoise, Sam shares her journey from small-town kid told she'd only work with "cows and cats" to tackling Wyoming's diverse wildlife health challenges.
Discover how chronic wasting disease has become endemic across Wyoming, why older male deer might be the main disease spreaders, and the surprising prevalence of rabbit hemorrhagic disease since 2020. But perhaps most intriguingly, meet the adorable swift fox—a resilient little species where 92% test positive for parvovirus exposure, raising fascinating questions about disease transmission between wild and domestic animals in America's wild west.
Link
https://wgfd.wyo.gov/wyoming-wildlife/wildlife-disease-and-health
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Join host Dr. Cat Vendl as she heads to Vancouver Island to meet Dr. Damien Joly, CEO of the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative – though he insists he's just a "boring old disease ecologist!" But this couldn’t be further from the truth. Discover how Canada's unique cooperative approach tackles wildlife diseases across the world's second-largest country, from bird flu that's here to stay to chronic wasting disease threatening deer and potentially caribou.
Damien shares captivating stories from hunting pandemic viruses in Southeast Asian bats (they found a thousand new viruses with some being very similar to COVID!) and saving Mongolian gazelles from unnecessary culling during disease outbreaks. Learn why diplomatic skills matter more than business acumen when coordinating wildlife health across provinces, and get an insider's preview of the upcoming WDA conference in Victoria – where you might spot orcas from the ferry!
Links
The Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative: https://www.cwhc-rcsf.ca/
Wanna learn more about the upcoming WDA2025 conference? Check out the website: https://www.wda2025.com
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Meet Alexandra Youssef, Lebanon's first and only certified wildlife rehabilitator and co-founder and vice-president of the NGO Lebanese Wildlife, based in Beirut. Alexandra fights to save wildlife amid economic collapse, war, and ancient cultural myths that drive species toward extinction. From the striped hyena (Lebanon's national animal, yet its most killed) believed to hypnotize victims, to snakes executed on sight despite most being harmless, Alexandra battles superstition alongside bullets.
Learn how this former nutritionist turned pioneering rehabilitator personally funds rescues while confronting gunshot-wounded raptors, rabies outbreaks, and deep-rooted folklore. Alexandra reveals how war and superstition create a perfect storm for wildlife destruction, yet demonstrates how One Health principles can bridge human survival and conservation – even when caring for bats and hyenas puts her own safety at risk.
A rare glimpse into wildlife rehabilitation where every rescue is an act of defiance, and changing minds may be harder than healing bodies.
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Self-described "systems thinker" Dr. Steve Unwin has spent decades working at the human-wildlife interface across four continents and believes we've got our scientific name all wrong. According to Steve, we're not Homo sapiens but Pan narrans: the storytelling ape. Host Dr. Cat Vendl explores Steve's journey from "pretending to be a zoo vet" to creating vital conservation networks and leading Wildlife Health Australia's International One Health Program.
Discover how orangutans taught him patience while conducting "environmental enrichment" experiments on their keepers, why mental health is crucial for wildlife practitioners, and how better storytelling might be our best tool for preventing our own extinction. A refreshing perspective on using compassion and communication to transform wildlife health in an era of growing political isolationism.
Links of the organizations mentioned in this episode that Steve is involved in:
Wildlife Health Australia
PASA
OVAG
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
In this captivating episode, host Dr. Cat Vendl speaks with zoo veterinarian and researcher Dr. Brett Gardner about the unprecedented rabies outbreak in Cape fur seals along South Africa's coast. Brett reveals how this once-impossible disease jumped from black-backed jackals to marine mammals, creating a new wildlife health crisis.
Discover the detective work behind tracing the virus's origin, the devastating impacts on both seal colonies and human communities, and the race to protect sub-Antarctic species through emergency vaccination programs. Brett also shares insights from his PhD research on Australian fur seals, highlighting how much remains unknown about disease ecology in Southern Hemisphere marine mammals—making this episode essential for anyone interested in emerging wildlife diseases and One Health approaches.
Links
One Health Research Group at the University of Melbourne
Out of the Blue - teaser for the upcoming documentary on the rabies outbreak in cape fur seals in South Africa
Article on the rabies outbreak investigations
Brett's professional Instagram handle: #conservationvet_brett
Footnote:
Brett pointed out that they didn't test the seal the dog came into contact with. The dog being bitten by a seal was not actually witnessed, and the seal wasn't identified or sampled. The dog rabies was linked to seal rabies later via sequencing.
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Join host Dr. Cat Vendl with Dr. Helen Schwantje, British Columbia's pioneering wildlife veterinarian of nearly three decades. Journey from her unexpected career beginnings to her groundbreaking work with bighorn sheep and the complex fight to save mountain caribou through a variety of conservation strategies. Helen shares insights about Indigenous partnerships and previews the upcoming WDA conference in Victoria, where scientific presentations will blend with diverse perspectives in a spectacular coastal setting – where you might just spot an orca!
Discover how building communities and fostering collaboration has shaped a remarkable career dedicated to protecting Canada's iconic wildlife.
Links
Wild sheep foundation
Caribou Conservation Alliance
International WDA2025 conference in Victoria, BC, Canada
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Join host Dr. Cat Vendl as she travels to New Zealand's Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari, where Dr. Janelle Ward leads native species restoration behind the country's largest predator-proof fence. Discover how four kiwis introduced in 2005 grew into hundreds, leading to the largest kiwi translocation in history. Janelle reveals the challenges of managing this booming population, from specialized conservation dogs tracking elusive birds to navigating new health conditions as the sanctuary reaches carrying capacity. Learn how deep partnerships with local Māori iwi enrich conservation through co-governance and cultural practices, creating a sanctuary where biodiversity thrives and a thousand-year vision for restoration unfolds—one bird at a time.
Links
https://www.sanctuarymountain.co.nz/ & https://www.linkedin.com/in/janelle-ward=b692a01b
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Join host Dr. Cat Vendl as she speaks with Dr. Sonia Hernandez, Wildlife Disease Association president and professor whose research spans continents and species. From studying prehistoric-looking tapirs adapting to human landscapes in Costa Rica to tracking white ibises navigating between Florida's wetlands and city parks, Sonia shares insights from her remarkable career.
Discover how her journey from intimidated veterinary student to association leader has shaped her vision for science communication in an era of growing skepticism. Along the way, Sonia offers valuable wisdom for wildlife health professionals about staying adaptable and finding unexpected paths to meaningful work—crossing borders both geographical and disciplinary to address today's complex wildlife health challenges
Links
https://hernandezlabuga.wixsite.com/wilddisease/dr--sonia-hernandez
https://hernandezlabuga.wixsite.com/wilddisease
https://warnell.uga.edu/directory/people/dr-sonia-m-hernandez-dvm-daczm-phd
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Join our host Dr. Cat Vendl as she takes you to Oklahoma, where Will Funk directs wildlife rehabilitation at WildCare Oklahoma, caring for over 8,000 native patients annually – from hummingbirds to bald eagles, and even tarantulas! Will shares his fascinating journey from studying red kites in London to investigating mysterious neurological outbreaks in raccoons that challenge conventional wisdom about parvovirus. Discover his research on raccoon roundworm, a zoonotic parasite with serious public health implications for both wildlife and humans.
Will makes a compelling case for wildlife rehabilitation centers as vital surveillance stations bridging conservation, disease monitoring, and public health. From heartbreaking losses to triumphant recoveries – including a remarkable bald eagle that survived highly pathogenic avian influenza against all odds – this episode offers a unique window into the evolving world of wildlife health at the intersection of rehabilitation, research, and One Health.
Wanna learn more about Will’s work? Follow these links!
https://www.wildcareoklahoma.org/
"Funk's Wildlife Disease Lab" on Facebook and @ok_wildlife_disease on Instagram
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
In this episode, our host Cat Vendl sits down with Dr. Tim Cernak, who is revolutionizing wildlife conservation through an unexpected lens: Conservation chemistry. From developing human medicines at Merck to fighting wildlife extinction with artificial intelligence, Tim shares how he's creating a "One Health Pharmacy" – where cutting-edge drug development meets conservation. Discover how the same tools used to combat COVID-19 are now being deployed to save endangered species, from frogs battling deadly chytrid fungus to hemlock trees threatened by invasive insects. Through fascinating examples and accessible analogies, Tim demonstrates how modern chemistry, AI, and robotics could help prevent the next mass extinction – one molecule at a time.
Links
https://cernaklab.com/
https://lsa.umich.edu/chem/people/faculty/tcernak.html
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Join us for an eye-opening conversation with K9 Jenns, a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney's Bat One Health Research Team, who brings a transformative perspective to the study of flying foxes and their viruses. Through the lens of queer ecology, K9 reveals how their personal journey has enriched their understanding of the complex relationships between bats and viruses, challenging traditional binary thinking in both science and society.
Discover how their team's collection of over 60,000 biological samples is unveiling new insights into virus ecology, including the discovery of 24 previously unknown Hendra Virus relatives. Learn why these findings matter for both bat conservation and public health, and how embracing complexity – whether in virus-host relationships or gender identity – leads to richer scientific insights and a more inclusive understanding of the natural world.
Link
Bat One Health research group
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
In this episode, our host Cat Vendl takes you to Berlin to meet Anna Langguth, a PhD candidate studying one of the most devastating wildlife diseases recorded in mammals: white nose syndrome. From childhood bat enthusiast to innovative researcher, Anna shares her fascinating work on understanding how Australian microbats might respond to this deadly fungal disease before it reaches their shores.
Learn about her groundbreaking approach to studying bat immune responses by growing bat wing cells in petri dishes, her insights into the complex relationship between bat hibernation and immune function, and why prevention might be our best strategy against this disease that has already claimed over 6 million microbats in North America. This forward-looking research showcases a rare example of scientists working to understand disease susceptibility before an outbreak occurs, potentially helping to protect Australia's unique bat species.
Links
Twitter: https://x.com/anna_langguth
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/alangguth.bsky.social
Instagram: a_langguth
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Join us for an extraordinary conversation with Dianna Bisset, an Australian wildlife carer whose journey spans from creating equipment for James Cameron's deep-sea expeditions to rehabilitating wombats and kangaroos at Rocklily wildlife refuge. Diana shares her firsthand experience of the devastating 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires and their profound impact on wildlife, challenging long-held beliefs about the Australian bush's resilience. Through moving stories, including the remarkable recovery of a Wallaroo with a broken spine, Diana reveals both the heartbreak and hope in wildlife rehabilitation. She offers unique insights into innovative wildlife protection solutions and the evolving role of wildlife carers in the face of increasing environmental challenges.
Links
Visit Dianna's website and learn more about her wildlife rehab work
@rocklilywombats on Instagram
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In this episode, we are taking you on a dive into the world of wildlife tuberculosis with Professor Michele Miller. Michele is the NRF South African Research Chair in Animal TB at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Her career has spanned from clinical work in major U.S. zoos to groundbreaking research in South Africa's Kruger National Park. Her multidisciplinary approach has combined veterinary medicine, immunology, and public health. We'll be discussing Michele's current research, including her work on TB diagnostics and management in various wildlife species. Michele will share her perspectives on the One Health intersections between wildlife, domestic animal, and human health. And Michele has just been elected as one of the new members at large on the WDA Council!
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
In the 1960s, the Canadian government decided to relocate 14 muskoxen to the Eastern Arctic, a region where these large bovines had never been native. The intention was to support the local Inuit community by providing a new source of food and other resources. However, it appears the government did not consult the community about its needs or preferences. Farming the muskoxen was suggested, but the practice wasn’t culturally relevant. With little interest shown, the government released the muskoxen into the wild—again, without consulting the community. Since then, the muskoxen have thrived, with their population growing substantially. But Inuit people and researchers suspect they may be competing with native caribou, a species central to the Indigenous diet and culture for thousands of years and whose numbers have been declining.
In this episode, host Cat Vendl speaks with Dr. Laura van Driessche, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Montreal, who studies the health of both muskoxen and caribou. With a background in domestic bovine health, Laura brings her passion for wildlife into her research as she and her colleagues investigate the causes behind the caribou population decline.
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
In this episode, you will meet Dr. Rita Santos, a veterinarian whose passion for wildlife has taken her across continents. From rehabilitating cottontail rabbits and hummingbirds in Minnesota to treating wildlife in the UK, Rita shares insights from her diverse experience in wildlife medicine. We discuss the fascinating differences between European and American rabbits, explore the challenges of wildlife rehabilitation across different countries, and learn about her research on blood parasites in Portuguese owls. The conversation culminates with Rita's current ambitious PhD project - studying the health of gorilla and chimpanzee populations in Angola's Mayombe forest, where she aims to bridge the gap between wildlife conservation and human health in one of Africa's most understudied regions. This episode offers a unique glimpse into the varied world of wildlife health and the exciting challenges that lie ahead in great ape conservation.
Links
Rita's LinkedIn profile: linkedin.com/in/ritabarriosantos
Rita's Researchgate profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rita-Santos-38
Rita's academic profile: https://www.cibio.up.pt/en/people/details/rita-santos/
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Our host Cat Vendl chats with Anastasiia Kovba about all things viral diseases of wildlife in Japan, to be more precise on the island of Hokkaido. Anastasiia is a PhD student, based at the University of Hokkaido in Sapporo.
Anastasiia grew up in the Ukraine and did her vet degree there. For her Master’s, she moved to Japan to study HIV. But since her passion has always been wildlife, she is now investigating viral diseases in wildlife.
Links
The link to Anastasiia’s most recent paper
Anastasiia’s LinkedIn profile
Anastasiia’s Research Gate profile
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Have you heard of the upcoming WDA2024 off-country conference from Dec 1-6?
In less than 2 months the annual international WDA conference is coming up. It will take place in Australia’s capital, Canberra, from Dec 1-6.
Australia! Sounds great, you might think. But that may not be in the budget right now. Fear not! We have you covered. This year’s conference will come in two ways: an on-country version, which will be in person on Australian soil, and an off-country part which will be held online. Both conferences will be interwoven, yet separate events.
Tired of online conferences? Longing for personal connection? Well, we got you covered there as well. The off-country country conference will be very different to everything you have experienced before. Think, coverage of the Olympics, replacing sports with science and personal stories in wildlife health. The participants won’t just share their research, they will also share their personal experiences along their career path. And you can be a part of it!
Our host Cat Vendl chats with the organizing committee of off-country WDA2024, a group of 7 early to mid-career wildlife health academics (including our host Cat) from 5 continents. Meet Sangjin, Fernando, Lucas, Marianthi, Berta, and Sarange and listen to their vision for WDA2024!
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Our host Cat Vendl is talking all things Australian wildlife health with wildlife biologist Jane Hall. Jane is the project officer at the Australian Registry of Wildlife Health at Taronga Zoo and a PhD candidate at Griffith University.
In her many years with the Registry, she has worked with all creatures big and small, from the tiniest marsupials to the giants of the sea, the humpback whales. Her work took her on many trips to one of her favorite places on Earth, Christmas Island, where she has studied the health of the Christmas Island flying foxes.
On the side, Jane investigates the impact of disease and pollution on New Zealand fur seals for her PhD.
Links
Jane's research profile at Griffith University
Jane's profile with the Australian registry of Wildlife Health
Wanna be a guest on the show?
Feel free to email communications(at)wildlifedisease.org or catharinavendl(at)gmail.com with a short summary of your research story.
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
This week on WDA's Wildlife Health Talks podcast, host Dr Cat Vendl immerses herself and our listeners in an interview with Dr Helena Costa on her project 'Whale Exhale'. Helena studies the viruses in the blow of humpback whales that visit the coastline of Norway for the annual herring run.
A PhD student at Nord University in Bodø, Norway, it's a far cry from Helena's homeland of Portugal.
Links:
Helena's research gate profile
Helena's parapoxvirus paper
WhaleExhale's X account
Article written about project Whale Exhale
Wanna be a guest on the show?
Feel free to email communications(at)wildlifedisease.org or catharinavendl(at)gmail.com with a short summary of your research story.
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Our host Cat Vendl chats with WDA's own vice president Richard Kock. Richard has lived almost a life time of promoting wildlife health in Africa, Central Asia and the UK. Born in Rhodesia (today's Zimbabwe), Richard worked in Kenya for many years. He has seen the devastating consequences of colonialism to wildlife conservation first hand and has worked hard to counteract them.
Listen in to Richard's story!
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Tigers, leopards and now one-horned rhinos. Dr Martin Gilbert studies them all. He is a wildlife veterinarian, epidemiologist and Associate Professor of Practice at Cornell University, US. Originally from Scotland, he has investigated infectious diseases and mysterious mass die-offs all over Asia. It was him and his colleagues who discovered that it was the administration of Diclofenac to livestock that killed millions of vultures in India in the early 2000s.
Listen in to Martin’s story!
Links:
- Martin's Academic profile
- Programmatic website
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Our host, Dr Cat Vendl chats with yet another winner of the 2024 BioOne Ambassador awards, Dr Sarah Wright. Sarah studied an aspect of the immune system of South American sea lions. She is based in Illinois in the US and is the Associate Editor for two veterinary journals and the co-host of the podcast Veterinary Vertex.
Listen in to Sarah’s story!
Links
Watch Sarah’s BioOne Ambassador award video
Sarah’s paper the video is based on
Sarah’s podcast veterinary vortex
Sarah’s LinkedIn profile
Learn more about the Punta San Juan Program
Check out the website of the AVMA Journals Sarah is works for website
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Our host Dr Cat Vendl and her guest Dr Elis Fisk dive into the mystery of the big horn sheep. Elis is a PhD candidate and anatomical pathology resident at Washington State University in the US and one of the winners of the 2024 BioOne Ambassador Award. In his video for the award, he showcases his impressive drawing skills and explains how he and his colleagues solved the mystery around the dying big horn lamps.
Links:
"Draw and Learn: A Bighorn Sheep Mystery" – 2024 BioOne Ambassador Dr. Elis Fisk video: https://bioonepublishing.org/our-work/2024-ambassadors/dr-elis-fisk/
Elis' paper on the bighorn sheep mystery: https://meridian.allenpress.com/jwd/article-abstract/59/1/37/490259/ABORTION-AND-NEONATAL-MORTALITY-DUE-TO-TOXOPLASMA?redirectedFrom=fulltext
More about Elis' research: https://vetmed.wsu.edu/infectious-disease-and-immunology-fellow-to-continue-research-into-tick-disease/
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Our host Dr Cat Vendl chats with Dr Andrew Peters, past WDA president and Associate Professor in Wildlife Health and Pathology at Charles Sturt University in Australia.
A small revolution is about to take place within the WDA and hopefully the world of conference-ing as we know it. Andrew is the main organizer and creative head of the upcoming international WDA conference taking place in Canberra in early December this year. What is it that will make this conference so special, you might wonder. Well, sit back, relax and listen for yourself.
Check out the conference website to learn more here! Abstract submission closes on June 21!
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
This year’s international WDA conference in Canberra, Australia, is preceded by a series of webinars to familiarize the WDA community with the concept behind the conference. This conference will differ quite a bit from the conventional. One of the new concepts introduced will be the special presentation style applied through-out the conference. There will be no complicated figures, equations, or data tables. Presenters will showcase their work via story telling or through the arts. Sounds easier said than done. This episode’s guest is here to help.
Nigel Sutton is the Director of Creative Learning and Audience Engagement of NDS Productions and the presenter of the pre-conference workshop on knowledge and storytelling, coming up on June 3.
Links
Pre-conference webinar series: https://wda2024.com.au/pre-event-webinar-series/
Sign up for Nigel's workshop:
- https://events.humanitix.com/workshop-sharing-knowledge-through-storytelling
- https://events.humanitix.com/workshop-sharing-knowledge-through-storytelling-kexvpdhe
Nigel's online profile: https://ndsproductions.com/nigelsutton/
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
In this episode, we are diving into the fascinating world of the Egyptian rousette bat and its rich variety of pathogens. Our host Dr Cat Vendl chats with Dr. Jessica Elbert, a board-certified pathologist and PhD candidate at the University of Georgia. Marburg virus is just one of many viruses that the Egyptian rousette bat carries. Jessica has been intrigued by the bats’ immune system and their special way of dealing with infectious pathogens. We also delve into Jessica’s amazing transition from living a life as a jazz vocalist in NYC to becoming a vet, pathologist, and lover of bat viruses. Not many people can say that!
Listen in to Jessica’s story on bats, Marburg virus and jazz.
Links
Wanna help Jessica to achieve her goal and use ViroCap for her PhD research? Check out her fundraiser here.
Wanna take a glimpse into Jessica’s previous life of jazz? Check out her playlist on Spotify here.
Wanna be a guest on the show?
Feel free to email communications(at)wildlifedisease.org or catharinavendl(at)gmail.com with a short summary of your research story.
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
In the aftermath of the Covid19 pandemic, the Convention on Migratory Species of the United Nations renewed their focus on One Health and migratory species. In the wake of this renewal, researchers from the University of Edinburgh in the UK wrote a review titled "Migratory Species and Health: A Review of Migration and Wildlife Disease Dynamics, and the Health of Migratory Species, Our host Cat Vendl is joined by two of the authors, Dr Marja Kipperman and Dr Ruth Cromie. Ruth and her colleague, Katie Beckmann, presented the review at the 14th Conference of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in February this year.
Links:
Resolution 12.6(Rev.COP14) on Wildlife Health and Migratory Species
Migratory Species and Health Review
Avian Influenza (Resolution 14.18)
Migratory Species and Health Review
Preventing Poisoning of Migratory Birds (Resolution 11.15(Rev.COP14))
We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
Seals have lice. This might not sound like a revolutionary fact. Many mammal species carry lice. However, as it happens, seal lice are the only marine insects that exist on this planet. In this episode, our host, Cat Vendl interviews Dr Florencia Soto about her work on the host-parasite-relationship between seals and lice and her recent trip to Antarctica. On this expedition, an international team of researchers investigated the presence and impact of High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza subtype H5 on Antarctic wildlife. And what they found was more pretty concerning.
Listen in to Flo’s story about the new thread to the Southern continent, the miraculous marine adaptations of seal lice and why Flo can’t get enough of the eternal ice in the far South.
Flo is a postdoctoral researcher at the Biology of Marine Organisms (Instituto de Biología de Organismos Marinos) in Puerto Madryn, Argentina.
LinksArticle on HPAI Australis Expedition
Video on Flo’s and her colleague’s work with Antarctic seal
We all love to see a conservation project on a previously endangered wildlife species succeed. But what happens if a formerly small population grows to a point where its size becomes unsustainable? Performing a cull? Definitely not the most pleasant option. Our guest, Dr Ai-Mei Chang, works on a way more ethical solution: She develops and tests immuno-castration vaccines for the population control of wildlife species. In addition, she has worked on a range of infectious diseases in small wild carnivores.
Ai-Mei completed her degree in veterinary medicine and her PhD at the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology in Taiwan. Since Feb this year, she has been working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tasmania in Australia.
Check out Ai-Mei's website here.
They are small, agile, and incredibly cute and their numbers are steadily increasing in Germany. However, the Eurasian otter still faces many challenges in German waterways. Our guest, Dr Simon Rohner, studied their causes of death, their pollutant burdens, and the human-otter-conflict. Him and his colleagues have been working on solutions of how to make Germany a safer otter habitat. After his PhD at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Simon has recently started his new position as assistant curator at Frankfurt Zoo, Germany. And luckily, they have otters there, too.
Join us on this otterly amazing journey into the German rivers and streams.
Links
https://www.otterspecialistgroup.org/osg-newsite/
Our guest this week is Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) first female vet. Dr Tania Areori is one of only three vets at the National Agriculture and Quarantine Inspection Authority (NAQIA) in PNG. One of the first challenges in her new position was managing the African swine fever outbreak.
Tania had to work hard to get where she is now. Since she was kid, she wanted to become a vet. Not an easy task considering PNG doesn’t have a vet school. Tania had to win a prestigious scholarship to go to vet school in Australia, having to leave behind her young family.
Join our host Dr Cat Vendl on Tania’s remarkable journey to become PNG’s first female vet.
Links:
Want to learn more about Tania’s journey and work? Check out this article in the WDA’s Quarterly.
Deep in the rainforest between Peru, Colombia and Brazil there is a lot going on. Wildlife trafficking is likely to blame for the occurrence of reverse zoonoses transmitted from humans to owl monkeys caught for biomedical research.
In addition to studying the occurrence of reverse zoonoses, our guest, Dr Fernando Vilchez Delgado, investigates the potential evolution of Flaviruses in the making in the local primate population.
Join our host Dr Cat Vendl and Fernando on a trip of adventure, science and true crime to one of the most remote places on earth.
Links
- Link to the website of the NGO Entropika, Fernando's collaborator, fighting wildlife trafficking in Peru.
- Article about Entropika's founder Primatologist Ángela Maldonado
Deaf dolphins, hooked turtles and manatees hit by boats, Dr Debra Moore has seen it all in her career as aquatic mammal vet. She is the former head vet of the Institute of Marine Mammal Studies, IMMS, in Southern Mississippi, US. In addition to her clinical work, she is an assistant clinical professor at Mississippi State University and gives vet students the opportunity to get hands-on training on sea lions, sea turtles and dolphins. She is passionate about teaching and believes that it is essential that students become aware of the critical role of ocean health for the planet’s and therefore our own well-being.
And on a side note, Debra is one of our newest WDA members. She joined on the day of the podcast interview. Who thought podcasting can’t make a difference!
Learn more about the Institute of Marine Mammal Studies: https://imms.org/
Ticks have a microbiome, too. They carry essential symbionts and sometimes less essential members like Borrelia. Our host Dr Cat Vendl and her guest Dr Alice Lau explore the secrets of tick microbiome, but also chat about what it’s like to move to different countries to follow one’s academic career. Alice is an expert in this. She speaks at least four languages fluently and loves to get to know new cultures. Alice is currently based in Tokyo.
Dive into the world of tick bacteria and being sometimes lost in translation with the Wildlife Health Talks.
In this first Wildlife Health Talks episode of 2024, we are taking you back to the very beginning, back to the year of 1951, when 28 US and Canadian wildlife biologists at the 16th North American Wildlife Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, founded the Wildlife Disease Committee.
Only one year later, in 1952 the Committee was renamed to, you might have guessed it, the Wildlife Disease Association. The WDA was born.
And one of the WDA’s founding fathers and first elected president was the wildlife biologist, Dr Carlton Herman.
For the first time on this podcast, our host Dr Cat Vendl has a whole bunch of guests to chat with about Carlton Herman and what drove him back in the days to found the WDA, a pretty visionary organization back then. After all, in the 1950s One Health was less than in its infancy.
Cat chats with three of Carlton’s sons, two of his colleagues, Ed Addison and Tom Yuill, and the WDA’s very own Executive Manager, Peri Wolff.
Our guest, Dr Hezy Anholt, is a true world citizen. She has lived and worked in about 10 different countries. Originally from Canada, Hezy has found a second home in Malawi where she initially worked as a research veterinarian for the Lilongwe Wildlife Trust for two years. In addition to running her own wildlife vet business, she has been a PhD candidate since 2021. Through the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada, she studies trypanosomiasis, or ‘sleeping sickness’, with a One Health approach. Malawi has the highest prevalence of this almost always fatal disease.
Join our host Dr Cat Vendl on a trip into the heart of wildlife research in Malawi with Hezy.
Links
Hezy’s PhD work with UBC: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/campus-community/meet-our-students/anholt-heather-hezy
Hezy’s blog post in the Lonely Conservationists on neo-colonialism: https://lonelyconservationists.com/2023/06/27/hezy-exploited-in-the-haze-of-a-dazzling-opportunity/
Koalas face a multitude of threats in their natural habitat on the east coast of Australia. These include habitat loss, infection with Chlamydia, dog attacks and car accidents. Our guest, Dr Julien Grosmaire, works as an environmental consultant and oversees the assessment of those threats. And as a side effect, he gets to hang out with incredibly cute koala joeys.
In addition, Julien is the current student & mentoring lead for The Veterinary Kaleidoscope, a veterinary diversity and inclusion organisation in Australia, supporting the rights of LGBTQIA+ people in Australia’s veterinary field.
In this episode, we are getting a little political. Indigenous rights are closely interconnected with One Health. Australia just had a referendum on the Voice to Parliament that could have meant a major boost of indigenous rights. But the referendum failed. Our host Cat chats with Julien about the consequences of the referendum outcome and Julien’s outlook for the future.
Related links to check out:
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Julien’s LinkedIn profile
-
The website of Veterinary Kaleidoscope
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Uluru Statement from the Heart
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Learn more about the Voice referendum in Australia that took please in Oct 2023
Dr Sarange Angwenyi knew that she wanted to become a wildlife vet at an early age. Experiences like acting as bait for an aggressive leopard to dart and relocate the animal, certainly wasn’t part of her initial plan. And yet, Sarange loves every minute of her journey that started with her 10 year-old self, shadowing her local vet. Today, Sarange serves as the Wildlife Health and Disease Surveillance Manager on the Smithsonian's Global Health Program. Earlier this year, she has been awarded the National Geographic Explorer. She is currently involved in projects reintroducing mountain bongos and introducing an app to wildlife rangers that aims to prevent disease outbreaks among wildlife in Kenyan National Parks.
Our host, Dr Cat Vendl, chats with Sarange about her fascinating journey and also discusses the challenges that Sarange has faced like discrimination as a female wildlife vet and neocolonialism in Kenya.
https://explorer-directory.nationalgeographic.org/shaleen-angwenyi
Join us on a trip to the Mongolian steppe!
You don’t need to be a mammal lover to find these creatures fascinating. Saiga antelopes have been around and unchanged since the last ice age when they roamed the Mongolian plains with woolly mammoths. But the saigas haven’t had an easy run for the past years. In 2016/2017 a massive disease outbreak that had spilled over from domestic livestock caused them to die by the tens of thousands.
This episode’s guest, Dr. Enkhtuvshin Shiilegdamba, called Enkee, led the investigations and shares her experience. Enkee has had an impressive career in epidemiology and One Health that brought her to the US to study and research at UC Davis and back to her home country, Mongolia. After many years with the Wildlife Conservation Society, Enkee currently works as a transboundary animal disease specialist consultant for the Worldbank and the FAO.
We are taking a speed tour through her career journey and wonderful and challenging experiences she had on the way.
Links
Enkee’s profile on LinkedIn: https://mn.linkedin.com/in/enkee-enkhtuvshin-shiilegdamba-50128413
An article from 2019 on Saiga conservation in Mongolia from Enkee: https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/with-new-protections-saiga-antelope-may-continue-to-be-a-symbol-of-central-asia-commentary/
‘Pathologists know everything, they just know it too late’
For our guest Dr Heather Fenton, wildlife pathology is like being a detective solving a murder mystery case. Only that her victims are not human, but dolphins, penguins, sea snakes or turtles. For her that makes it even more exciting. Heather works for the Australian Registry of Wildlife Health and is based at Taronga Zoo in Sydney. The location of the zoo, overlooking beautiful Sydney Harbour is as amazing as what’s going on behind the scenes, lots of wildlife conservation, reconciliation work with indigenous groups and plenty of education for kids and adults alike.
Join us for some of Heather’s story based at the heart of Sydney.
Check out Heather’s profile and the Australian Registry of Wildlife Health: https://arwh.org/
Did we just find Galapagos 2.0? We are pretty sure we did. Guafo island is a pristine island in the south of Chila and just like the Galapagos Islands it is teaming of marine life, being a safe haven for South American fur seals, humpback whales, sea otters, and orcas. This is where marine biologist Dr Diego Perez-Venegas truly feels at home. He is part of the research group Guafo Island Science and studies the effects of macro and microplastic pollution on marine mammals and other marine vertebrates.
Dive in to an untouched world of marine wonders and meet one of the scientists who can’t wait to share his passion about this magical place in the Pacific.
Links
Check out the website of Guafo Island Science: http://www.guafoislandscience.com/
Interested in volunteering or doing a research project with them? Don’t hesitate to reach out to Diego (diegojoaquin.pv@gmail.com).
Chicago is a great city with lots of opportunities for people and wildlife species alike. Our guest, Henry Adams, loves this city and its wildlife. They work as Wildlife Management Coordinator at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago and study the feathered, furry and scaly inhabitants and investigate how they deal with busy city life. Henry is also a self-taught illustrator and passionate science educator and they just started a WDA initiative for queer and ally members.
Get ready for a jam-packed episode full of passion for science, art and kindness with Henry and Cat.
Henry’s profile on the Lincoln Park Zoo website: https://www.lpzoo.org/experts/henry-adams-m-s/
Mac loves pathology and marine mammals. So he turned it into his career. On this week’s episode, our host Cat Vendl chats with Weerapong Laovechprasit, called Mac, about his journey from clinical work with stranded marine mammals in Thailand to his PhD in sea turtle health at the University of Georgia, US.
Learn more about dugongs and why they make difficult patients, dive into the diversity of sea turtle viruses and find out why pathology is at the base of it all.
Check out Mac’s profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weerapong-laovechprasit-656a63120
Tapirs are Costa Rica’s megafauna. They are special in more than just one way. Visually, they are highly elusive, but they have a rich vocal life. Due to their immense appetite for fresh greens, they regularly get into conflict with the local farmers. That’s where the work of our guest, Dr Jorge Rojas Jimenez starts. Jorge is a PhD student at the University of Georgia in the US and the Conservation Program Manager of the Tapir Interdisciplinary Program Nai Conservation in Costa Rica. Jorge and his colleagues track the movements of tapirs, study their health, and run extensive outreach programs to restore the peace between tapir and men.
Learn more about Costa Rica Wildlife and Jorge’s work here: https://costaricawildlife.org/
For internship opportunities with tapirs email Jorge directly (jorge.rojas@uga.edu).
This is the Integrative Conservation (ICON) PhD Program that Jorge is part of: https://cicr.uga.edu/
Follow Jorge and Costa Rica Wildlife on social Media: @crwildlife @naiconservation @ugacicr @tapirvalleycr @tapirvet
In this episode, our host Cat Vendl chats with PhD student Joy Flowers. Joy is the founding mother and current president of the very first North America-wide WDA student chapter, called CANUSA. Joy is in the first year of her PhD at Pennsylvania State University, US. In her PhD, she studies the impact of deforestation on Ebola virus spillover.
Get ready for our chat on WDA student activities and Ebola spillovers.
Do you want to get involved with CANUSA? Email Joy: jgf5234@psu.edu
Our guest Dr Fransiska Sulistyo never planned to work with these amazing creatures. It happened just by chance and now, Siska can’t imagine her life without the gentle orangutans. She spent five years in the jungle of Borneo as animal welfare coordinator of BOSF (Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation). She got to know the hairy primates inside and out and in passing she also learned a lot about human psychology. After all we are not that different from our hairy cousins.
Currently, Siska works with OVAG, the Orangutan Veterinary Advisory Group, as an independent consultant for several orangutan rescue & rehabilitation centers in Indonesia.
Learn more about OVAG: https://www.ovag.org
Learn more about BOSF, an Indonesian NGO that runs one of the biggest great apes rescue, rehabilitation, and reintroduction programs in the world: https://borneoorangutansurvival.org
Let us take you on a trip from the mountains of the Pyrenees, over the lush rainforests of Costa Rica to the remote Pacific paradise of Cocos Island. this episode's guest Dr Gianmarco Bettoni is still an early wildlife researcher and veterinarian, but he has participated in multiple, amazing projects. What they all have in common is the aim of promoting wildlife conservation and One Health.
Listen to Gianmarco’s stories on elusive tiger cats, majestic Galapagos sharks and the master of all mountain climbers, the chamois.
They are wildlife, too, but they are mostly overlooked in wildlife research. They are the rats that roam our cities! Our guest and rat detective, Dr Kaylee Byers, is part of the Vancouver Rat Project, and studies the pathogens urban rats carry. And as importantly, she studies the rats’ ecology that drives infection patterns. Let’s be honest, humans have tried to control rats since the beginning of time, and they have not been very successful. Hence, we need a new approach which the Vancouver Rat Project delivers.
Listen in to how rats rule Vancouver, how Kaylee’s Canadian home province managed to stay rat-free and what it is that makes Kaylee so passionate about science communication.
Why should you hurry to book your tickets to Guatemala this November? What does it mean to become a BioOne Ambassador? And why are more and more Antarctic seals stranding on Brazil’s coastline?
Dr Aricia Duarte Benvenuto has all the answers. She is a PhD candidate at the University of Sao Paul and investigates the pathogens of the local aquatic mammals. Listen in to her story!
Check out the website of our Latin American section and their upcoming conference in Guatemala: https://www.wdalatinoamerica.org/
Watch Aricia’s winning video for the BioOne Ambassador award: https://bioonepublishing.org/our-work/2022-ambassadors/aricia-duarte-benvenuto/
Picture caption: Photo taken during the health assessments of the Araguaia river dolphin (Inia araguaiaensis) in the Araguaia river in september 2022.
Our host Cat interviews Dr Anna Haw, a south African wildlife vet, who seeks to understand the economics behind wildlife conservation. Anna made a very unusual decision for a vet when she moved to California to get her MBA. She wanted to understand the underlying context of why a rhino is dead worth so much more than alive in our current warped value system and how this could be changed. Besides, Anna talks about her incredible time spent in the Kalahari Desert at night, while waiting for an aardvark to pop out of its burrow and being charged by highly aggressive porcupines.
Flying foxes are omnipresent on Australia’s east coast. Some people love them, others, especially horse and property owners with lots of yummy fruit trees in their backyards are not so sure. It’s particularly horses that are sensitive to a virus that feels very comfortable in Australia’s fruit bats. It’s Hendra virus. Our guest Dr Alison Peel is fascinated by the variety of viruses that call bats their home, and Hendra is one of her personal favourites. Her team recently published a paper that shows how extreme weather conditions increase the likelihood of spillovers and how these can be mitigated in sustainable and ecologically friendly ways.
Check out the website of Ali's research group: https://batonehealth.org
Cat’s guest in this episode, Dr Tiggy Grillo wears many hats. She is the Chief Operating Officer of Wildlife Health Australia, works with the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) and is the co-chair of the IUCN SSC Wildlife Health Specialist group. Tiggy is a vet but she also uses her diplomatic skillset to navigate the waters of international wildlife health management and policy. And she is amazing at it. Don’t miss out on Tiggy letting us in to her secrets.
However crawly and creepy, Rick loves them all. Dr Rick Gerhold is an Associate Professor of Parasitology at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Tennessee. Our host Cat chats with Rick about his passion for worms, large and small, and his favorite part about sampling wild moose.
Check out Rick’s uni profile: https://vetmed.tennessee.edu/about/faculty-staff/profiles/?id=138
Australian sea lions are one of the most endangered mammal species in Australia. And they are not alone. Australia is infamous for one of the highest extinction rates of native animal species worldwide.
Our host Cat chats with Dr Rachael Gray about her work trying to find out what is ailing the sea lions and how to help them survive. An usual breeding cycle, a high prevalence of hookworms and climate change are only some of the factors giving them a hard time.
Rachael is an associate professor in veterinary pathology at the University of Sydney.
Listen to Rachael's story!
Check out Rachael's USyd profile: https://www.sydney.edu.au/science/about/our-people/academic-staff/rachael-gray.html
Image courtesy Dominik Fretz
Our host Cat chats with wildlife health veterinarian and anesthesiologist Dr Friederike (Fidu) Pohlin about her PhD on rhinos in South Africa and her current work on small and large wildlife in the Austrian forests.
Rhinos are Fidu’s favorite patients, but they aren’t the easy sort. Especially translocations are challenging. Fidu once even accompanied them on a plane trip to make sure they were most thoroughly cared for.
Fidu works at the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology at the Veterinary University of Vienna, Austria.
Listen in to her story!
Podcast host Cat chats with Dr Scott Carver about the secret lives of wombats. His team built a robot, the Wombot, that allows to explore the burrows of the animals with the square-shaped poo. Scott is fascinated by the different shapes of poo in the animal kingdom and is particularly proud of his most recent paper, where he explores the physics behind the mystery. Scott also investigates sarcoptic mange that is currently giving wombats a hard time.
Scott is an Associate Professor in wildlife disease ecology at the University of Tasmania in Hobart.
https://www.utas.edu.au/profiles/staff/biological-sciences/scott-carver
Check out the video of the Wombot exploring a wombat burrow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Ae8XhEMrxDo Check out Scott’s paper on the physics of poo shapes: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2023/sm/d2sm00359g/unauth
Not even 30 bee stings in one hand and a fridge full of exploding penguin eggs could stop PhD candidates Mel Wells to study the pollutant exposure of little penguins in Australia’s south. Based at the University of Tasmania, Mell uses the smallest of all penguin species, the little penguins, as marine ecosystem sentinels for PFAS exposure in the seas surrounding Tasmania.
The ‘forever chemicals’ PFAS are everywhere, in us, in our environment and our wildlife. Long-term exposure can cause a range of health issues including endocrine disruption, decreased fertility and certain types of cancer.
Mel's web page: https://www.utas.edu.au/profiles/staff/biological-sciences/melanie,-wells
Keen to learn more about PFAS and the exposure of wildlife, people, and the environment? Check out https://www.livingpfas.org (a project by podcast host Cat and her colleagues at the University of New South Wales Sydney).
Why do bats carry so many deadly viruses that don’t affect them and why is it a fungus that brings them to their knees? Our host Cat chats with Dr Elizabeth Falendysz, a vet and wildlife veterinarian at the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin. Liz doesn’t like tight spaces but for the bats and her research she squeezes herself through the tightest cave tunnels. Listen in to the fourth episode of the Wildlife Health Talks.
Cat chats with Dr Peri Wolff who has been the WDA’s executive manager since 2019. Few people know about Peri’s adventurous past. She used to treat film stars and made sure the wolves, monkeys and tigers were up for the job when the stage lights came on. Wild animals are her passion, but pot-bellied pigs are her secret treat. Besides holding the WDA together, Peri looks after the pet pigs of Los Angeles and surroundings. Some of her patients play the piano, have learned how to deal with emergency scenarios and sleep in their owners’ bed. And Peri just can’t get enough of them. She might not want to hear it, but I believe she is a true pig whisperer.
https://www.wildlifedisease.org/PersonifyEbusiness/About-Us/Our-People/Executive-Management
Sarah loves the underdogs of the animal world. In 2013 she got up close with her study species for the first time. When doing an externship at the Seattle Aquarium, she witnessed a natural tragedy firsthand. Sea stars off the coast of Seattle were dying by the millions. The culprit? A disease called sea star wasting. After that, sea stars never let Sarah go again and she decided to dedicate her PhD to the impact changing ocean conditions caused by climate change have on sea stars.
Sarah is a PhD candidate at the College of Veterinary Medicine and a passionate advocate of animal welfare for invertebrates. Sarah wishes to thank everyone who made her PhD research possible; she is especially grateful to the Wildlife Disease Association Wildlife Veterinary Section and American Association of Zoo Veterinarians Wild Animal Health Fund for grands which funded this research.
Cat recorded the interview with Sarah at the conference of the Australasian section of the WDA (WDAA) in late Nov 2022. Wanna learn more about the WDAA conferences? Click on this link.
Learn nore about Sarah's research and the sea stars here.
Our host Cat chats with Dr Jenny Bloodgood about her work with turtles who grow into seafood-loving couch potatoes in rehab, manatees who are not quite ready for climate change and the devastating 12-year aftermaths of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the gulf of Mexico, the largest and most devastating oil spill in history.
Jenny is a vet and marine mammal health researcher at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama. 'Alabama has a coastline?' you might wonder. Yes, it does and even a very pretty one.
By now, Jenny has moved on to her new position as an Assistant Professor of Practice at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine and a Wildlife Veterinarian with the New York State Wildlife Health Program in Ithaca, NY.