International Programs

International Zoonotic Disease Research and Capacity Building

The Wildlife Health Center, a unit within the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis, focuses on the health of wildlife, people and the ecosystems they share, and is a leader in the study of diseases transmitted from animals to people, called zoonoses.

Owing to their potential to affect humans on a worldwide scale, emerging infectious diseases, especially zoonoses, have captured the attention of scientific communities and the public.

HALI
HALI—Health for Animals and Livelihood Improvement— is a collaborative US–Tanzania research and capacity-building project aimed at assessing the effects of zoonotic disease and water management on health and livelihoods in Tanzania’s Ruaha ecosystem. The project focuses on pathogens in waterholes shared by humans, livestock and wildlife.

The Wildlife Health Center’s HALI project is supported by the GLCRSP-USAID and is conducted in partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society, Sokoine University of Agriculture and the University of Vermont.

Avian Flu School
In addition to our avian influenza surveillance, the Wildlife Health Center has worked with UC Cooperative Extension to develop a practical train-the-trainer program. Avian Flu School focuses on avian influenza preparedness, encompassing surveillance, public health, worker safety, prevention and response. Flu School has been ongoing in various African countries since 2005, including Djibouti, Benin, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana and Ethiopia. The modules developed in 2005 have been refined and translated into Swahili, French, and Spanish. Graduates of the training program in these countries have in turn become local trainers and have been conducting new trainings.

Mountain Gorilla Project

The Wildlife Health Center and the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) established a unique and precedent-setting initiative called the Mountain Gorilla One Health Program in April 2009. This program will exemplify the One Health approach to problem solving in an endangered species very closely related to humans.

SeaDoc Society

The SeaDoc Society is a marine ecosystem health program based in Washington State. Committed to the idea that envionmental problems do not know international boundaries, it has recently introduced the Ten Principles of Ecosystem Health as a model for healing the Salish Sea in Washington and British Columbia.

Envirovet

The Envirovet Summer Institute is a unique seven-week summer course that introduces 25 veterinarians and veterinary students from around the world to wildlife and ecosystem health and conservation. One partion of the course is always in a developing country.