Abstract
There is increasing recognition of disease as a threatening process for biodiversity conservation, and associated with that the need to study the health of wildlife species within ecological contexts in order to assist recovery efforts to conserve threatened species.
This paper discusses postgraduate training initiatives offered by universities and collaborative partner organisations in Australasia, which aim to train veterinarians in the fields of wildlife health and conservation medicine. There are a diverse range of postgraduate training programs offered through coursework and research degrees, as well as clinical residency programs.
Postgraduate coursework degrees which are available for veterinarians cover a diverse range of topics including wildlife medicine, conservation medicine, epidemiology, evidence-based clinical practice, and a new unit has recently been developed in comparative pathology of wildlife. Additionally, there have been and continue to be numerous PhD research projects being undertaken by veterinarians in Australasia focusing on disease in wildlife.
An interdisciplinary approach is required to address the disease challenges facing biodiversity conservation and fi1rther our understanding in relation to emergence of new diseases in wildlife; associated disease inter-relationships between human, animal and ecosystem health; and the, often anthropogenic, ecological change that affects these health inter-relationships and drives disease emergence.
It is hoped that graduates of postgraduate training in wildlife health and conservation medicine will be well placed to address the complex issues associated with the increasing occurrence of disease as a threatening factor to endangered Australasian wildlife, both in practice and at policy level.