The Wildlife Health Cornell Center of Excellence represents an unprecedented approach to the health challenges wild animals face here in the northeast U.S. and around the world - a comprehensive, science-based response by a team of the world's top wildlife and ecosystem health experts.
 
It's been an exciting few months for our Wild Carnivore Health Program - we received two grants, from the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future and the Cornell Feline Health Center, to expand our wild carnivore health and conservation efforts in Asia.

The first project, " Doing More with Less: Sustainable Management of Livestock and Wildlife," takes us to Tajikistan's Pamir Mountains, where human livelihoods and the entire ecosystem are threatened by livestock overgrazing. By improving animal health and reducing herd size, we can help communities limit their environmental footprint - relieving pressures on wild sheep and goats, as well as the snow leopards that rely on them.

The second project, " Canine Distemper Virus as a Threat to Tiger Conservation in Tropical Range States," will further our investigations into the prevalence of canine distemper virus infection in the previously unstudied tiger populations of Indonesia, Thailand, India, and Nepal. Ultimately, this project will enable countries supporting 88% of the world's tigers to evaluate the risks posed by this very important pathogen, first found to impact wild tigers in the Russian Far East.
 
For more information on the work of the Wildlife Health Cornell  Center of Excellence, please visit www.wildlifehealthcornell.org. As in the past, we hope you find this e-newsletter useful and thought-provoking. Please let us know! 
 
- Steve Osofsky, DVM
Jay Hyman Professor of Wildlife Health & Health Policy
Vet Student with Bees
Training Veterinary Students to Protect Pollinators
 
Honeybees are crucial for New York's agricultural economy. A new course at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine trains students on how to protect these important pollinators.
AHEAD Celebrates 15 Years
 
The Animal & Human Health for the Environment And Development (AHEAD) Program was launched 15 years ago at the International Union for Conservation of Nature's World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa. Since then, the program has focused on interrelated challenges impacting land-use, animal and human health, wildlife conservation, and poverty alleviation.
Veterinary Technician
Training Veterinary Technicians in Wildlife Medicine
 
Cornell sets the bar for training vet techs in wildlife medicine. The Veterinary Technician Student Preceptorship in Wildlife Medicine is the first of its kind in the northeast U.S., and gives veterinary technicians-in-training concentrated wildlife-focused experience.
Bald Eagle
Bald Eagle Poisoning
 
The mystery behind the deaths of 13 bald eagles found in a Maryland field has recently been solved by investigators: the birds were poisoned with the pesticide carbofuran, which came under scrutiny three decades ago for killing an estimated two million birds a year.
Jaguar Surgery
© Bethany Wright
Veterinary College Partners Open New Clinic at Belize Zoo
 
The residents of the Belize Zoo have a brand-new veterinary clinic that will serve the medical needs of everyone from Sparks the tapir to Chiqui the jaguar. Members of the College of Veterinary Medicine celebrated this milestone with zoo staff when the clinic opened this summer.
Annual Report
 
The New York State Cooperative Wildlife Health Program is a partnership between the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and our Cornell Wildlife Health Lab (CWHL) focused on safeguarding the long-term health of wildlife in New York.
The Emerging Field of Planetary Health
 
The NIH's National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) journal, Environmental Health Perspectives, describes the origins of the field of planetary health, including Cornell's role.
Fruit Bat
© Anton 17 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
 
As human populations increase around the world, people have increasingly encroached on wildlife habitats, sometimes causing previously unknown, deadly diseases to jump from animals to humans. To counter this threat, Cornell's Dr. Hector Aguilar-Carreno and his lab study how the Nipah virus jumps from bats to people.
Black Bear
Your gift literally means the world to us!
 
Please consider supporting Wildlife Health Cornell by giving online, or contacting Sheila M. Reakes at 607-253-4310 or <smr45@cornell.edu>.
                     

The Wildlife Health Cornell Center of Excellence envisions a healthy future for wildlife, people and planet. We strive to develop proactive, science-based approaches for sustaining a healthier world. By improving knowledge, understanding, and capacity at the interface of wildlife health, domestic animal health, and human health and livelihoods, environmental stewardship can be enhanced today, and for tomorrow.
To learn more about Wildlife Health Cornell, please contact
Dr. Steve Osofsky at  s.osofsky@cornell.edu or visit our website .
 
Please let us know if you have any comments on this e-newsletter,
an d if you find it useful! Thank you for your support.