MOUNTAIN GORILLA ONE HEALTH PROGRAM

Press release, April 23, 2009: here.

Humans and great apes are closely related evolutionarily, and as a result, share many of the same health concerns. The Wildlife Health Center and the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) have just established a unique and precedent-setting initiative called the Mountain Gorilla One Health Program. This program will exemplify the One Health approach to problem solving embraced by the United Nations, American Medical Association, American Veterinary Medical Association, Centers for Disease Control and Wildlife Conservation Society, among others. Most importantly, this collaboration will help to ensure the long-term health and survival of the mountain gorilla, and the human and animal communities that share their habitat.

For nearly 20 years, the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) has been helping the mountain gorillas survive by providing them with life-saving veterinary care for human-caused or life-threatening illness and injuries. The MGVP is the only source of veterinary care to mountain gorillas in the wild. Established in 1986 by the Morris Animal Foundation, under the directorship of Dr. Michael Cranfield, the MGVP has expanded over the last 10 years in the direction of One Health, recognizing that the sustainability of mountain gorillas is integrally linked, not only to the health of the gorilla population, but to the health of the other wildlife species, domestic animals and the humans with which it co-exists.

The reality of the gorillas' environment is that they live in close proximity to other animals, both wild and domesticated, as well as humans. Humans, as park workers and ecotourists, have and continue to bring foreign germs into the parks that threaten the gorillas. At the same time, the gorillas venture close to the surrounding populated areas where they come into close contact with domestic and companion animals and are thereby exposed to infectious diseases. As a One Health-oriented program, the MGVP strives to maintain and ensure the long-term health of mountain gorillas through veterinary intervention, health monitoring and research on gorillas, wildlife and domestic animals, as well as promote community (human) health and capacity-building in range countries in the area of veterinary science and wildlife conservation. The Mountain Gorilla One Health Program will instigate and coordinate new research, and develop collaborations that take advantage of the tremendous resources for animal and human health and agricultural development available at the University of California. For example, critical questions to be answered include:

1) What human diseases are mountain gorillas exposed to, and how can we prevent transmission? Humans and mountain gorillas are close cousins: what affects us affects them.

2) Which preventive health care services should be provided to park workers and their families, to reduce the risk of gorillas contracting human diseases? Park workers have close contact with mountain gorillas and should be healthy

3) How can the health and well-being of the human communities surrounding the parks be elevated?

4) How can the health and well-being of other wildlife species and domestic livestock in the region be increased, so that both the animals and the humans that depend upon them can lead healthy and productive lives?

As well, the partnership will foster research and training of veterinarians and students from both the United States and African nations, and raise the visibility of the mountain gorilla One Health program, so that other universities and integrative health programs around the world can benefit from it as a model for One Health. UC Davis has a long history of involvement with the MGVP: Linda Lowenstine has been the project’s veterinary pathologist since its beginnings in the mid-1980s, and primatologists Alexander Harcourt and Kelly Stewart, faculty in the Department of Anthroplogy, conducted extensive research on gorilla behavior at the Karisoke Research Center with Dian Fossey.

About the Wildlife Health Center

The Wildlife Health Center is a Center of Excellence within the School of Veterinary Medicine, comprised of 13 epidemiologists, disease ecologists and ecosystem health clinicians and their staff working at the cutting edge of pathogen emergence and disease-tracking in ecosystems. It benefits from the expertise of 50 other participating UC Davis faculty members from many disciplines who are involved in the discovery and synthesis of information about emerging zoonotic diseases (those transmitted between people and animals) and ecosystem health. Its mission is to balance the needs of people, wildlife and the environment through research, education and service.

About UC Davis

For 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matter to California and transform the world. Located close to the state capital, UC Davis has 31,000 students, an annual research budget that exceeds $500 million, a comprehensive health system and 13 specialized research centers. The university offers interdisciplinary graduate study and more than 100 undergraduate majors in four colleges -- Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Biological Sciences, Engineering, and Letters and Science -- and advanced degrees from six professional schools -- Education, Law, Management, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.