March/April 2026

Dear Friends of the Cornell K. Lisa Yang Center for Wildlife Health,

I'd like to call your attention to an important "hot off the press" publication entitled Nature Positive: Halting and Reversing Biodiversity Loss toward Restoring Earth System Stability. Written by luminaries in their fields, including Cornell disease ecologist Dr. Raina Plowright, this important piece aligns with what our Center is all about. As per first author Harvey Locke, "Too often biodiversity is seen as a ‘nice-to-have’ luxury that takes second place to so-called ‘real world’ concerns about the economy and human development. We show that this is a fundamental misunderstanding of reality. Biodiversity at all scales is integral to the functioning of the planet (including the climate system and freshwater). It is therefore both vital to human well-being, and the context for all economic activity.”

Elevating Spillover Prevention at the 2026 UN High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response



Leading experts, including Cornell’s Dr. Raina Plowright, highlight the need to elevate spillover prevention to the heart of global pandemic governance via the 2026 UN High-Level Meeting on pandemic prevention. Members of the Lancet–PPATS Commission on Prevention of Viral Spillover and civil society partners lay out five priority areas to confront spillover and its systemic drivers.

Cornell Veterinarians Collaborate Internationally to Advance Wildlife Welfare in China

Wildlife Health Lab Hosts State Training on Chronic Wasting Disease

Botswana Shows How Smarter Cattle Herding Can Save Lions, Reopen Ancient Wildlife Pathways

It Could Save Your Life: Connecting the Dots Between Human and Wildlife Health

Penguins, Pathogens, and Public Health: A Spotlight on Dr. Amandine Gamble

From the islands of the Subantarctic to the dairy farms of the northeastern U.S., Dr. Amandine Gamble is on a mission to learn how different wildlife species contribute to disease transmission networks.

Rural Brazil Faces Highest Outbreak Risk of Oropouche Virus

A once-neglected tropical virus is silently spreading across Brazil and putting rural communities at highest risk, according to a new study published in Nature Health led by the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine and the University of Kentucky.

Is Chronic Wasting Disease Inevitable? [video]

Steve and Some Good Gnus in Southern Africa [podcast]

Forging a Path Between Veterinary Medicine and the Ocean

Charting a Career Path in Zoological and Wildlife Medicine

Presenting, Collaborating, and Learning at the Wildlife Disease Association Conference

Wildlife Conservation Gets a Seal of Approval

Zoo and Wildlife Medicine in Australia



Becoming Veterinary A-“fish”-ionados in AQUAVET I

Health Status and Drivers of Endoparasite Infection in a Low-Density Moose (Alces alces) Population

Regional Pathogen Surveillance of Free-Ranging Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) in North Carolina, USA

Hunting and Transnational Socio-Ecological Relations Among Myanmar Refugees in Upstate New York

Transmission Dynamics of Oropouche Virus in Latin America and the Caribbean

Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) in Extra-Amazonian Oropouche Outbreak Areas of Minas Gerais, Brazil: Ecological Insights into Virus Transmission

Avian Flu Suspected for Causing Bird Deaths in Orange County, Preliminary Tests Show

Avian Flu Strikes California’s Northern Elephant Seals; Area Quarantined