October 11, 2020

To mark World Rabies Day 2020, the Southern Africa WDA student chapter (SAWDASC) launched an online competition where African students were invited to submit a short awareness video or poster/artwork/photo. The aim of this competition was to raise awareness about the devastation still caused by rabies, especially in neglected communities, and the global goal to end dog-mediated rabies deaths by 2030.

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The winners of the competition will be announced at the WDA-AME End Rabies online lecture event held on Sunday, October 11th at 3 pm (GMT+2).

The event will be organised by the Southern Africa Wildlife Disease Association Student Chapter and the Zoo and Wildlife Medicine Study Group. We are excited to welcome Dr. Grace Kia (Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria) and Dr. Katja Koeppel (University of Pretoria, South Africa) as our speakers who will give insight into the work they have been doing to end rabies.

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Program:

3 pm: Welcome

3:15 – 3: 45: Dr. Grace Kia “War Against Rabies”

3:45 – 4:00: Questions

4:00 – 4:30: Dr. Katja Koeppel “Rabies in black backed jackal and oral rabies vaccine”

4:30 – 4:45: Questions

4:45 -5:00 Announcement & display of the winning posters and video.

Please follow this link to join the meeting: https://vettribewebinars.adobeconnect.com/rihxsum99z37/

June 21, 2020

Dr Margaret Bethaline Nolan completed her BSc (Honours) and MSc in animal sciences In Ireland (University of Limerick & University College Dublin). Margaret worked in industry and animal biotechnologies R&D for several years in Ireland and Japan before returning to academia. She received her PhD in Veterinary Science (Production Animal Studies) in 2019 from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. During her PhD research, Margaret developed a novel recombinant zona pellucida immunocontraceptive vaccine formulation. Margaret is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow based at Stellenbosch University, South Africa where she is conducting mechanistic research on innate immune memory as a member of the Immunology Research Group at the Division of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics.

Population management of elephants in South Africa through immunocontraception

The porcine zona pellucida (pZP) immunocontraceptive vaccine has been successfully used in approximately 85 species for population management through fertility control. The successful application of the pZP vaccine over several decades in domestic and free-roaming horses (Equus ferus caballus) has served to inform the development of population control management programmes for other species including the African elephant (Loxodonta africana). Despite the success of its application, there are several limitations associated with the current pZP immunocontraceptive vaccine formulation.

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This talk will focus on the use of the pZP vaccine in African elephants in South Africa and the development of novel ZP-based vaccine formulations in the horse as both a model and target species.

May 31, 2020

The next (free) online journal club represents a joint effort with the Zoo and Wildlife Medicine Study Group and the European Wildlife Disease Association Student Chapter - Netherlands together with the Dutch student group Archaeopteryx.

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The journal club will take place on May 31st at 13:30 (Amsterdam time). The link to joint the meeting will be shared via the Zoo and Wildlife Medicine Study Group facebook page.

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Dr. Tabitha Hoornweg from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, The Netherlands, will present on Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpes Virus - Virus, diagnosis and the path towards an effective vaccine.

Originally trained in Medical Biology and Science Communication, she received her PhD in Experimental Virology from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, in 2016. Next, she spent 3 years as a post-doc at the Dutch National Institute of Health, where she performed research on rare and emerging viral infections. In 2019, she moved to Utrecht University to study Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpes Virus (EEHV) in the research group of Prof. Dr. Victor Rutten (Immunology) and Dr. Xander de Haan (Virology). Currently, her research focuses on the
development of novel and improved diagnostic assays to detect EEHV in elephants, with the eventual aim to develop a vaccine. Additionally, she studies the pathogenesis of EEHV hemorrhagic disease with the ultimate goal to develop improved, evidence-based treatment strategies.

May 09, 2020

Nasal tumors in the endangered Mexican grey wolf - challenges to the conservation program

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Presenter: Dr. Carlos Sanchez, DVM, MSc

Veterinary Medical Center Oregon Zoo

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Date: Saturday, May 9th, 20:30 (Pretoria time)

April 19, 2020

"A time of great opportunities: One health in the age of climate change, extinctions and pandemics"

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Presenter: Dr. Sharon Deem, DVM, Ph.D., Dipl. ACZM, Director of the Saint Louis Zoo Institute for Conservation Medicine

Date: April 19th @ 14:30 (Pretoria time)

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Check out her TED talk here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weXJBFai5Os&t=14s

April 05, 2020

April 5th @ 13:30 (South African time)

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Presented by Dr. Nikolaus Huber

Dr. Huber is specialized in wildlife conservation medicine with a particular focus on stress physiology/eco-immunology. After he graduated from the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, he went to Sweden as a wildlife research veterinarian working mainly on Scandinavian brown bears and roe deer. After an intermediate stop at the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland, he went back to Vienna to complete his Ph.D., where he explored a method called Leukocyte Coping Capacity and its use as an immunological proxy for stress. Currently, Dr. Huber is working as a post-doc at the Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, focusing on the reciprocal interactions between stress, health, and animal welfare in different environmental contexts.

Recommended reading:

Huber, N., Marasco, V., Painer, J., Vetter, S. G., Göritz, F., Kaczensky, P., & Walzer, C. (2019). Leukocyte coping capacity: an integrative parameter for wildlife welfare within conservation interventions. Frontiers in veterinary science, 6, 105.

Huber, N., Fusani, L., Ferretti, A., Mahr, K., & Canoine, V. (2017). Measuring short-term stress in birds: Comparing different endpoints of the endocrine-immune interface. Physiology & behavior, 182, 46-53.

March 29, 2020

We are super excited to announce that Dr. Catharina Vendl from the University of New South Wales (Australia) will present at our nex (free) online journal club taking place on

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SUNDAY, March 29th, at 10:30 pm (Sydney) = 1:30 pm (Pretoria, Vienna, Rome, Berlin) = 06:30 am (Bogota)

on "The respiratory tract of whales and how to measure whale health"

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We will share the link to joint the meeting with you soon :)
You will also find all information to the event at our SAWDASC facebook page and the zoo and wildlife medicine study group (ZWMSG) facebook page.

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Cat completed her vet science degree in Berlin, Germany. She moved on to a Masters by Research at the University of Zurich in Switzerland to study the digestive physiology and methane production in kangaroos, sloths and pygmy hippos. Eventually, Cat moved to Sydney, Australia, to study whales and dolphins and their airway bacteria. Besides research, she is passionate about science communication and writing and loves freediving and Filipino martial arts. 

Science blog: https://cvendl.wixsite.com/catharina/blog

Twitter handle: @ScienceCath

Science Radio show, Boiling Point:

• https://www.facebook.com/boilingpoint/ 

• https://eastsidefm.org/boilingpoint/

Papers published to this topic:

Vendl, C., Slavich, E., Nelson, T., Acevedo‐Whitehouse, K., Montgomery, K., Ferrari, B., Thomas, T. and Rogers, T., 2020. Does sociality drive diversity and composition of airway microbiota in cetaceans?. Environmental Microbiology Reports.

Vendl, C., Ferrari, B.C., Thomas, T., Slavich, E., Zhang, E., Nelson, T. and Rogers, T., 2019. Interannual comparison of core taxa and community composition of the blow microbiota from East Australian humpback whales. FEMS microbiology ecology, 95(8), p.fiz102.

December 15, 2019

Our next (free) online journal club will take place on Sunday, December 15th at 14:30pm (UTC-5) or 20:30pm (UTC+1). You can join the meeting here:
https://vettribewebinars.adobeconnect.com/rv1tymv29sxr/

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Emily Potratz from the University of Illinois, Chicago will present on:

"How hormones inform management - from abundant deer to endangered black footed ferrets"

It will be about two of her projects, that study two extremes of wildlife conservation in North America: hazardously overabundant white-tailed deer and rare to the point of extinction black-footed ferrets. Endocrine analysis offers a non-invasive mechanism to monitor species health, which in turn can provide more informed management decisions.

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Suggested reading:
Kalliokoski O, Jellestad FK, Murison R. A systematic review of studies utilizing hair glucocorticoids as a measure of stress suggests the marker is more appropriate for quantifying short-term stressors. Nature 2019.

September 08, 2019

This JC will focus on bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) reproduction in captive settings.

Date: 08. September 2019

Time: 2:30-3:30 pm (UTC-5), please check for your time zone!

The link to join the meeting will be sent to our members via email and can also be found in the Zoo and Wildlife Medicine Study Group facebook event.

Presenter: Melanie Oesterwind, DVM from Germany

Recommend reading:
Lacave, G., Eggermont, M., Verslycke, T., Brook, F., Salbany, A., Roque, L., & Kinoshita, R. (2004). Prediction from ultrasonographic measurements of the expected delivery date in two species of bottlenosed dolphin (Tursiops truncatus and Tursiops aduncus). Veterinary record, 154(8), 228-233.

Robeck, T. R., Curry, B. E., McBain, J. F., & Kraemer, D. C. (1994). Reproductive biology of the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) and the potential application of advanced reproductive technologies. Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine, 321-336.

Additional information:
Gulland, F. M., Dierauf, L. A., & Whitman, K. L. (2018). CRC handbook of marine mammal medicine. CRC Press.
 

August 04, 2019

August 04, 2019 at 21:30 - 22:30 UTC+2/MEST (14:30 PM – 15:30 UTC-05).

This JC will focus on the importance of positive reinforcement conditioning training to improve research, handling, and veterinary care of non-domestic felids in captive settings.

Title:
How to train your lion: positive reinforcement conditioning to collect samples from unanasthetized lions.

Presenter:
Isabel Callealta Rodríguez, Ph.D. candidate
Department of Anatomy and Physiology
Faculty of Veterinary Sciences at University of Pretoria
South Africa

Recommended reading:
- Bergman, L., & Janssen, D. (2005). Treatment of generalized anxiety in a cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus). In: D.S. Mills, E. Levine, & G. Landsberg (Eds.), Current Issues and Research in Veterinary Behavioral Medicine (pp. 6). Purdue University Press: Indiana, USA.
- Broder, J. M., MacFadden, A. J., Cosens, L. M., Rosenstein, D. S., & Harrison, T. M. (2008). Use of positive reinforcement conditioning to monitor pregnancy in an unanesthetized snow leopard (Uncia uncia) via transabdominal ultrasound. Zoo biology, 27(1), 78-85.
- Lin, Y., & Wang, L. (2018). Animal training and acupuncture in a Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) with hind limb paraparesis. Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine, 49(2), 493-496.
- Mellen, J. D., & Shepherdson, D. J. (1997). Environmental enrichment for felids: an integrated approach. International Zoo Yearbook, 35(1), 191-197.

March 16, 2019

Join our next (free) online journal club on Saturday March 16th at 21:30 South African time:

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Anja Reckendorf will talk about "Applied Marine Mammal Research" focusing on anthropogenic threats and different aspects of marine mammal research, including a practical case study.

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Anja is a PhD candidate at the HGNI Graduate School oth the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, and ECZM Resident in Wildlife Population Heath at the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW) in Büsum. Her main area of expertise are marine mammals, especially cetaceans. She works on the post mortem monitoring of stranded marine mammals in Germany, is involved in wild marine mammal population health monitoring and some of her research focuses on wildlife parasitology.

February 03, 2019

Join our next (free) online journal club on Sunday February 3rd at 21:30 South African time:

Hand-rearing as an aspect of conservation - Case study of a Rothschild giraffe calf

Speaker: Janine Meuffels, BVSc, MVSc, MRCVS, PhD candidate, University of Pretoria

Recommended reading: Casares M, Bernhard A, Gerique C, Malo E, Carbonell D. Hand-rearing Rothschild or Baringo giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi calves at Bioparc Valencia, Spain, and Leipzig Zoo, Germany. Int Zoo Yearb. 2012;46(1):221-231.

October 27, 2018

Please joun our JOURNAL CLUB on October 27th at 2pm (GMT +2, CEST).

Dr. Jella Wauter will present on "Wildlife endocrinology as a tool to combat earth’s sixth mass extinction".

Updates on the event will be shared through the "Zoo and wildlife medicine study group" on facebook.

Here some recommended reading:
1. Ganswindt A., Brown J., Freeman E., et al. (2012) International Society for Wildlife Endocrinology: the future of endocrine measures for reproductive science, animal welfare and conservation biology. Biology letters 8, 695- 697.
2. Hodges K., Brown J., and Heistermann M. (2010) Endocrine monitoring of Reproduction and Stress, in Wild mammals in Captivity: Principles and Techniques for Zoo Management.
Kleiman D., Thompson K., Kirk Baer C., (eds). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, Chapter 33.
3. Kersey D. and Dehnhard M. (2014) The use of noninvasive and minimally invasive methods in endocrinology for threatened mammalian species conservation. General and Comparative Endocrinology 203, 296–306.
4. Watson R., Munro C., Edwards K., et al. (2013) Development of aversatile enzyme immunoassay for non-invasive assessment
of glucocorticoid metabolites inadiversity oftaxonomic species. General and Comparative Endocrinology 186 (2013)16–24

July 28, 2018

The next journal club will take place on the 28th of July (7-9am GMT - 5).

Dr Roberto Aguilar ECZM will report on forced molt in four juvenile yellow eyed penguins:

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Rebecca K. E. Webster, Roberto F. Aguilar, Anna-Karina Argandona-Gonzalez, Pauline Conayne, Deneka De Sousa, Aditi Sriram, Carina M. Svensson, and Brett D. Gartrell (2016) FORCED MOLT IN FOUR JUVENILE YELLOW-EYED PENGUINS (MEGADYPTES ANTIPODES). Journal of Wildlife Diseases: October 2016, Vol. 52, No. 4, pp. 809-816.

https://doi.org/10.7589/2015-11-305

June 30, 2018

The ZWMSG and the Southern Africa Wildlife Disease Association Student Chapter are pleased to invite you to participate in our next journal club entitled: "Influenza viruses in wild mammals" held by Sanatana Soilemetzidou.

This is an online free meeting.

The registration link and reading material will be shared soon.

March 24, 2018

On March 24th, veterinarian and PhD Candidate (IWJ) Sonia J. Fontes will present about Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpes Virus EEHV.

The Journal Club will take place at 9am NewYork time on Vettribe Webinars (https://vettribewebinars.adobeconnect.com/rqh9onw3sq1k/).

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Here is some recommended reading for the Journal Club on Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpes Virus (EEHV).

1) Richman, L. K., Montali, R. J., Cambre, R. C., Schmitt, D., Hardy, D., Hildebrandt, T. B., Bengis, R. G., Hamzeh, F. M., Shahkolahi, A. & Hayward, G. S. (2000a) Clinical and pathological findings of a newly recognised disease of elephants caused by endotheliotropic herpesviruses. Journal of Wildlife Diseases 36, 1-12

2) Zachariah, A., Zong, J., Long, S.Y., Latimer, E.M., Heaggans, S.Y., Richman, L.K., & Hayward, G. (2013) Fatal herpesvirus hemorrhagic disease in wild and orphan Asian elephants in Southern India, Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 49(2), 381-393

Also, you can find interesting and up-to-date information at eehvinfo.org.

February 25, 2018

Internship and residency programs opportunities in North America.

If you are pursuing an internship or a residency program in North America, there are some important things you need to be aware of. That's why our guest speaker, Dr. Carlos Sanchez (DVM, MSc -Wild Animal Health, senior associate veterinarian at the Fort Worth Zoo, TX, USA), will explain some things to consider before applying to one of these competitive positions. Join us and learn a little bit more on this topic.

When: Sunday, February 25th at 13:00 hours (Eastern Standard Time - NY)

Organized by:
-Zoo and Wildlife Medicine Study Group (ZWMSG)
-Southern Africa Wildlife Disease Association (WDA) Student Chapter

Special participation of:
-Association of Wildlife Veterinarians (VVS), Colombia

January 20, 2018

The 1st Zoo and Wildlife Medicine Study Group / Southern Africa WDA Student Chapter joint online journal club of 2018 will take place on Saturday January 20th at 8AM EST.

Fidu will repeat her talk on Translocation Stress in Wildlife.

Recommended reading:
1) Dickens, M.J., D.J. Delehanty, L.M. Romero (2010) Stress, an inevitable component of animal translocation. Biological Conservation, 143, 1329-1340
2) Wolfe, L.L., M.W.Miller (2016) Using Tailored tranquilizer combinations to reduce stress associated with large ungulate capture and translocation. Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 52(2), 118-124.

We are using google hangouts this time - the lecture is limited to 20 participants!

October 08, 2017

The ZWMSG and the Southern Africa Wildlife Disease Association Student Chapter (UP) is pleased to invite you to participate in our next journal club entitled: "Epidemiological analysis in African species" on October 8th 8 AM - 9:30 AM UTC-05.

Recommended reading:
SINTAYEHU, D. W., HEITKÖNIG, I. M. A., PRINS, H. H. T., TESSEMA, Z. K., & DE BOER, W. F. (2017). Effect of host diversity and species assemblage composition on bovine tuberculosis (bTB) risk in Ethiopian cattle. Parasitology, 1–10. http://doi.org/10.1017/S0031182016002511

This is an online free meeting. The access link will be posted soon.

August 26, 2017

The ZWMSG and the Southern Africa Wildlife Disease Association Student Chapter (UP) are pleased to invite you to participate in our next journal club entitled: "Cardiology in birds".

This is an online free meeting.

Here is the link for those who are attending the JC.

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Dr. Ernesto Dominguez from the Wildlife Center of Virginia will hold a presentation on cardiology of the avian patient.

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Recommended reading list:
1. Harrison G., Lightfoot T. Clinical Avian Medicine. 2006, Vol 1. Chapter 12: Evaluating and Treating the Cardiovascular system.

2. O’Malley B. Clinical Anatomy and Physiology of Exotic Species. Section Three: Birds. P.113-116

Other material:
-Strunk, A., & Wilson, G. H. (2003). Avian cardiology. Veterinary Clinics of North America: Exotic Animal Practice, 6(1), 1-28.

-Beaufrère, H., Pariaut, R., Nevarez, J. G., & Tully, T. N. (2010).Feasibility of transesophageal echocardiography in birds without cardiac disease. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 236(5), 540-547.

-Beaufrère, H., Pariaut, R., Rodriguez, D., Nevarez, J. G., & Tully, T. N. (2012). Comparison of transcoelomic, contrast transcoelomic, and transesophageal echocardiography in anesthetized red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis). American journal of veterinary research, 73(10), 1560-1568.

-Pees, M., & Krautwald-Junghanns, M. E. (2009). Cardiovascular physiology and diseases of pet birds. Veterinary Clinics of North America: Exotic Animal Practice, 12(1), 81-97.

-Beaufrère, H., Pariaut, R., Rodriguez, D., & Tully, T. N. (2010). Avian vascular imaging: a review. Journal of avian medicine and surgery, 24(3), 174-184.

July 08, 2017

The Southern Africa Wildlife Disease Association Student Chapter (UP) and the Zoo and Wildlife Medicine Study Group are pleased to invite you to participate in our next journal club entitled: "Oxygen transport in mammals and other species" on July 8th at 2pm UTC.
We will again use the ANYMEETING platform.

Recommended reading:
Bunn, H. (1980). Regulation of Hemoglobin Function in Mammals. American Zoologist, 20(1), 199-211.

Registration form will be posted soon.

May 20, 2017

The first online journal club is finally here on the 20th of May 2017 at 14:00 (STAT)!

We will be using the AnyMeeting platform to facilitate this group online meeting in association with the Zoo- and Wildlife Medicine Study Group.

We will discuss transloaction-stress in wildlife.

The recommended articles are:

1) Dickens, M.J., D.J. Delehanty, L.M. Romero, 2010. Stress, an inevitable component of animal translocation. Biological Conservation, 143, 1329-1340.

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2) Lopez-Olvera, J.R., I. Marco, J. Montane & S. Lavin, 2006.Transport stress in Southern chamois (Rupicapra pyrenaica) and its modulation by acepromazine. The Veterinary Journal, 172, 347–355.

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If interested, see also:

Padalino, B., S. L. Raidal, N. Carter, P. Celi, G. Muscatello, L. Jeffcott, & K. de Silva, 2017. Immunological, clinical, haematological and oxidative responses to long distance transportation in horses. Research in Veterinary Science, 115, 78–87.

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To join, please follow the "register" link and state that your organization is the WDA-AME SC. As there is limited space, we have secured 33% of the attendance to our members (JOIN US).

April 14, 2017

Together with the Zoo and Wildlife Medicine Study Group we are planning to have a joint online discussion meeting once every month.

Several wildlife medicine and disease topics will be covered.

For our first meeting, in May 2017, we will have Friederike Pohlin presenting about translocation stress in wildlife. Details including articles, time, date, and registration will be shared soon.

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Participating is free but will be limited to a number of participants. 33% of available spaces will be allocated to WDA-AME SC members.