Veterinary Field Practicum in South Africa Application

Program Overview

In partnership with South African National Parks, this field based veterinary practicum, focuses on disease ecology and applied veterinary epidemiology in and around the Greater Kruger National Park. The practicum, is run in partnership with local veterinary scientists, is designed to provide participants with direct insights into current challenges faced by wildlife conservation in South Africa and veterinary health care in resource-poor rural agricultural areas. Interactions with field veterinarians and extensive experience in practical and theoretical disease research work will be a key focus. Land use changes and global climate change could have significant effects on disease epidemiology across a broad range of taxa. Associated with land use change is a predicted increase in the burden of disease in both domestic animals and indigenous wildlife. This veterinary programme is designed to provide students with training in techniques for monitoring disease in different vertebrate taxa across land use systems. It will also provide field research experience relevant to conservation, and make a contribution to long term epidemiological monitoring. The programmes will be run on an annual basis, to monitor important epidemiological parameters over time and assess the potential effects of both land use change and climate change, whilst providing feedback to decision-makers. While promoting applied clinical and field skills, the focus of this practicum is on the broader ecological, social and economic context of animal disease ecology, conservation medicine and one-health at the wildlife/livestock interface in an industrializing country. Within the context of climate change, the long term datasets provided by this practicum will also provide important yardsticks against which we monitor change in disease load over time.