This is the podcast of the Wildlife Disease Association (WDA, https://www.wildlifedisease.org). Our host Dr Catharina Vendl chats with wildlife health professionals including researchers, vets, pathologists and more, about the joys and challenges of their job and the emerging issues of wildlife health locally and worldwide. All of our guests have a longstanding affinity with the WDA and a true passion for wildlife in common. So brush up your knowledge of current wildlife issues and One Health with Wildlife Health Talks.
#88 Maria Teresa and a single drop of finch blood (Mexico & USA)
What if the birds you walked past this morning were quietly fighting off bacteria that have been devastating poultry farms for decades, and you'd never know, because they show absolutely no signs of being sick? That's what Dr. Maria Teresa Reinoso Perez discovered when she started looking inside seemingly healthy house finches in Mexico. More than 70% of the birds she sampled were carrying Mycoplasma gallisepticum - a pathogen that causes severe disease in US bird populations, yet not one of them looked ill. The infections were invisible from the outside, but their immune systems told a very different story. In this episode, Maria Teresa takes us from her hometown of San Luis Potosí, where she handled her very first finch as an undergraduate, to Cornell and back - explaining why finding a poultry pathogen quietly circulating through wild ecosystems matters for all of us, what won her the 2026 BioOne Ambassador Award, and what she's chasing next in the Galápagos. Links Read Maria Teresa's essay on her research on finch leukocytes that won her the BioOne Ambassador Award! Maria Teresa's website and social media: website Instagram X We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
#87 Arman and the wild birds of Iran
In Iran, there is no established path for a veterinary student who wants to work with wildlife. So Arman Nourishirazi and his teammates built one. Based in Ahvaz, in the province of Khuzestan, Arman is a final year vet student in one of the richest bird regions in the Middle East, where the Persian Gulf coast, vast wetlands and the Eurasian African Flyway all converge. Working with his university's veterinary hospital and the local Department of Environment, he helped create a system that treats injured wild birds and gives other students a way into a field that was effectively closed to them. The patients range from eagles and barn owls to white storks and great white pelicans. Arman also talks us through the first documented case of avian malaria in a cattle egret in Iran, and the creative fix he and his team came up with when two juvenile barn owls refused to eat and human imprinting was the last thing they could risk. Links Check out Arman's LinkedIn and Instagram profiles. We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
#86 Cody and Trichinella in Canada's Arctic North
What happens when a parasite learns to survive the deep freeze? In this episode, host Cat Vendl talks with parasitologist Cody Malone about Trichinella, the tiny worm behind your grandmother's warnings to cook pork through, and a real hazard for Canada's northern communities who rely on wild game. Cody shares how this strange nematode completes its entire life cycle in a single host, why freezing meat won't kill it, and how it can lurk in a frozen carcass for years. Along the way: a newly named species discovered on a Yukon mountain, a globe-trotting parasite that turned up in an Alaskan grizzly via what may have been a cruise ship landfill, and the surprising idea that a thriving Trichinella population can actually signal a healthy ecosystem. It's detective work, food safety, and Arctic ecology all in one, an unexpectedly gripping tour of life in the frozen north. Links Learn more about Cody's fascinating work on his Researchgate and LinkedIN profile. We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
#85 Elizabeth and the Blood Feeding Network (Mexico)
How do you find out which animals a mosquito has been biting? You start by thinking like one. In this episode, biologist Elizabeth Linares Alcántara takes us to a public park in Mérida, Mexico, where she hunts blood-fed mosquitoes in their hiding spots and reads the DNA in their tiny abdomens to reveal who they have been feeding on, from humans and iguanas to feral cats and a neighbour's grazing goat. The result is a "blood feeding network" that helps anticipate outbreaks of dengue and other emerging diseases. Elizabeth also shares a finding that turns intuition on its head, and offers a preview of next year's WDA conference, hosted in her own backyard on the Yucatán Peninsula. Links Learn more about Elizabeth's work on her ResearchGate profile. Check out more details about next year's WDA conference in Merida , about the Latin American WDA chapter and their student chapter . We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
#84 Genevieve and the Wider Lens of Queer Ecology (USA)
Genevieve Barnett spends their nights caring for one of the world's most misunderstood animals. From Night Flight Rehabilitation, the bat rehab NGO they founded in Colorado, they nurse little brown bats through white-nose syndrome and gently untangle myotis caught in fishing line, one patient at a time. But Genevieve is also asking bigger questions. Through the lens of queer ecology, they explore what we miss when we view the natural world through one narrow perspective: whose knowledge counts, whose stories get told. From butterflies that are half male and half female to lizard species with no males at all, they reveal a natural world far stranger and more diverse than mainstream science tends to admit, and they make the case that inclusion isn't a side note to One Health. It's central to it. Link Follow Genevieve on Instagram and learn more about their amazing bat rehab work: @night_flight_rehabilitation We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
#83 Sabrina and the Turtles of the Holy Shrine (Bangladesh)
This episode takes us to Bangladesh, a first for the podcast, where Dr. Sabrina Ferdous is doing wildlife health research in one of the most unusual field sites you'll ever hear about: a centuries-old religious shrine, home to a critically endangered turtle found almost nowhere else on earth. The shrine pond is visited by thousands of devotees who consider both the turtles and their water sacred. But when Sabrina and her team started investigating a troubling decline in eggs and hatchlings, they found a cocktail of zoonotic bacteria in that same water people were taking home to drink. The public health implications are hard to ignore. Sabrina also gives us a candid look at what it means to be a pioneering female wildlife veterinarian in a male-dominated field in Bangladesh, and shares a story from a research trip that nearly ended her career before it began. Spoiler: she was back in the field within two months. We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
#82 Briana and the Social Media Epidemic (USA)
Every day at Project Wildlife in San Diego, Briana Eisan sees the consequences of a scroll: baby raccoons scooped up by well-meaning strangers, people reaching bare-handed toward bats, wildlife encounters going viral for all the wrong reasons. As a veterinary assistant at one of the largest wildlife rehabilitation programs in the US, she's on the front lines of both disease surveillance and an quieter epidemic: the spread of wildlife misinformation online. In this episode, Briana explores how social media shapes public behavior toward wildlife and what that means for disease transmission, animal welfare, and conservation. From naturalized Amazon parrot flocks over San Diego to the psychology behind why people anthropomorphize wild animals, she makes the case that the same platforms driving dangerous encounters can, in the right hands, become powerful tools for change. Links Learn more about the Project Wildlife of the San Diego Humane Society We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
#81 Sharon and Wildlife on the Edge (Kenya)
Northern Kenya is one of Africa's most biodiverse landscapes, and one of its most demanding places to be a wildlife vet. Dr. Sharon Mulindi, senior veterinary officer at Kenya Wildlife Service, covers a vast stretch of this arid, wildlife-rich region where a 24/7 on-call schedule is less a job requirement and more a way of life. From darting wounded lions before breakfast to treating elephant calves in the midday heat, her days rarely go as planned. In this episode, Sharon shares the detective story behind a troubling spike in elephant deaths on the slopes of Mount Kenya, where an invasive plant quietly transformed a lush forest into a nutritional trap, and reflects on the growing pressures of climate change on Northern Kenya's wildlife and communities. She also discusses her research interests in zoonotic disease and antimicrobial resistance, and what it means to build a career as one of very few female wildlife vets in the region. We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
#80 Wendi, Slow Lorises and lived One Health in Indonesia
What happens when a wildlife vet who spent years nursing slow lorises back to health walks into a live animal market, not to rescue animals, but to sit down with the vendors selling them? That's exactly what Dr. Wendi Prameswari does. Based in Indonesia with conservation NGO YIARI, Wendi works across two of the country's most pressing wildlife-human interfaces: the live animal markets of West Java, and the forest communities of West Kalimantan where hunting wildlife is woven into daily life. Her approach isn't to shut anything down, it's to build trust, one conversation at a time. In this episode, Wendi shares what it takes to gain the confidence of traders who have every reason to be suspicious, why talking about COVID's economic impact opens doors that talking about viruses never could, and how a local tribe's ancient village-closing ritual turned out to be a remarkably effective form of quarantine. Links Learn more about Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia (YIARI), the nonprofit organization Wendi is working for here . Read the story of 10 years of YIARI's work in slow loris conservation here . We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
#79 Justorien and the Fight for Madagascar's Lemurs
Dr. Justorien Rambeloniaina grew up in northeastern Madagascar watching lemurs captured and killed, not yet knowing they were among the world's most endangered primates. Today he's fighting for them on every front, reconnecting fragmented forests with a five-kilometre wildlife corridor, combating the illegal pet trade, and sharing a quietly powerful encounter with a family keeping two mouse lemurs in a yellow water container, and what happened next. But his approach goes beyond the animals themselves. By establishing healthcare and education centres in remote villages, his team tackles the deeper drivers of habitat loss, because when communities thrive, lemurs have a fighting chance too. This is One Health conservation at its most grounded: built on community trust, shaped by personal experience, and driven by the conviction that Malagasy people are best placed to protect Madagascar's natural heritage. Links Learn more: The Dr. Abigail Ross Foundation for Applied Conservation (TDARFAC) The Lemur Freedom Project We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
#78 Conversations with Women of Wildlife (A Panel Discussion on the occasion of International Women's Day)
Six women. Five continents. Decades of experience spanning wildlife veterinary practice, disease research, government policy, and international conservation. Recorded for 2026 International Women's Day, this episode brings together an extraordinary panel to celebrate women in wildlife health, their journeys, their achievements, and their honest reflections on working in a field that hasn't always made space for them. From Taiwan to Kenya, Wyoming to Brazil, Indonesia to Germany, our guests share what drew them to wildlife health and what they've had to navigate along the way, the subtle daily realities of male-dominated spaces, alongside the genuine optimism that comes from seeing more women enter the field and rise into leadership. Warm, funny, and deeply human, this is the kind of conversation that reminds you why community matters in this work. Watch this episode as a video podcast on our Youtube channel here . Learn more about our panelists: Dr. AiMei Chang , wildlife veterinarian and academic at the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology in Taiwan, and Secretary of the WDA Asia-Pacific section Dr. Sharon Mulindi , Senior Veterinary Officer at Kenya Wildlife Service and a Masters student of Conservation Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and Vice Chair of the WDA Africa and Middle East section Dr. Aricia Duarte-Benvenuto , veterinarian and postdoctoral researcher at the Laboratory of Wildlife Comparative Pathology at the University of São Paulo in Brazil Dr. Kim Gruetzmacher , Wildlife and Conservation Veterinarian, working for the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation as Head of the Division for International Nature Conservation Dr. Samantha Allen , Supervisor of the Veterinary Service unit (Wyoming Game and Fish Department), State Wildlife Veterinarian for Wyoming, and President of the American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians Dr. Fransiska Sulistyo , wildlife veterinarian and consultant specialising in orangutan conservation and rehabilitation in Indonesia, and a PhD student at Adelaide University. We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
#77 Steve and Some Good Gnus in Southern Africa
What if the very fences built to protect livestock have been quietly driving one of Africa's greatest wildlife crises? Professor Steve Osofsky, one of the architects of the One Health movement, has spent over 30 years trying to solve exactly that problem in the vast five-nation Kavango-Zambezi Conservation Area, home to the majority of Africa's elephants. Steve shares how WOAH’s breakthrough recognition that a biosafe beef value chain can be considered equivalent to fence-based management of foot and mouth disease risk has allowed for a paradigm shift in southern African livestock disease management for the first time in over 70 years. He also points to how reviving the lost art of herding is helping to open new markets for farmers living alongside wildlife, reducing losses to lions, and offering the possibility of restoring wildlife corridors through less reliance on fencing. This is a story about bio-diplomacy, breaking down institutional silos, and finding win-wins in one of conservation's most stubborn standoffs. After 30 years, Steve is cautiously optimistic, and his reasoning is hard to argue with. Links Profile on the Cornell website Program websites of AHEAD and the Cornell K. Lisa Yang Center for Wildlife Health Cornell Chronicle news piece: Removing Southern African Fences May Help Wildlife, Boost Economy Most recent paper on the issue: Using Qualitative Risk Assessment to Re-Evaluate the Veterinary Fence Paradigm within the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area Related paper from 2013: Balancing Livestock Production and Wildlife Conservation in and around Southern Africa's Transfrontier Conservation Areas The Manhattan Principles on “One World, One Health”: https://www.oneworldonehealth.org/sept2004/owoh_sept04.html Watch the video version of the podcast interview here . We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
#76 Andrew and the Future of Wildlife Hospitals (Australia)
What if the key to saving more wildlife isn't treating more animals, but preventing them from ending up in hospitals in the first place? In this episode, host Dr. Cat Vendl speaks with Dr. Andrew Hill, a senior veterinarian at Currumbin Wildlife Hospital, one of the world's busiest wildlife facilities treating over 16,000 animals annually. Through his Churchill Fellowship, Andrew traveled 75,000 kilometers visiting ten major wildlife hospitals, uncovering a sobering truth: admissions are rising globally. Discover how a Minnesota veterinarian triaged 60 cases in under two hours, why Toronto's skyscrapers now go dark during bird migration, and the staffing ratios that prevent both animal mortality and veterinarian burnout. Andrew shares transformative insights on why collaborative long-term strategies, not individual heroics, are reshaping wildlife rehabilitation worldwide. This podcast episode is also available with the video: https://youtu.be/7ND_jGhnMVY Links Learn more about Andrew's findings here . Check out Andrew's work place, the Currumbin Wildlife Hospital here . We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
#75 Dennise and the Wild Cats of Costa Rica
Journey to Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula with wildlife veterinarian Dennise Ortiz, who tracks pumas and ocelots to answer a critical question: do biological corridors connecting fragmented forests actually work? From midnight captures to analyzing GPS data, Dennise reveals how these cats navigate between national parks, farmlands, and dangerous roads. Meet Jerry the ocelot, who survived a car strike and reappeared days later, and experience life through Tico the puma's camera collar as he hunts and courts females across his territory. Discover how movement data is reshaping Costa Rica's reforestation efforts and transforming local communities from viewing these apex predators as threats to becoming conservation allies in one of Earth's most biodiverse places. Links Learn more about the NGO Dennise works for: https://osaconservation.org/ We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
#74 Ny Aina and the Women Leading Madagascar's Conservation
From Madagascar's forests to the heart of conservation: meet Dr. Ny Aina Tiana Rakotoarisoa, a veterinarian on a mission to save critically endangered radiated tortoises while transforming how women lead in wildlife conservation. Ny Aina reveals the hidden crisis driving thousands of tortoises into illegal trade. It's not just about their striking beauty. She explores the local beliefs, economic desperation, and gender inequality that fuel the problem, then shares how her NGO, Women Rise Wildlife Research, is training local women as conservation leaders and breaking centuries of exclusion from the field. From the shocking realization that communities don't see themselves as owners of their own wildlife, to her vision of expanding women's involvement across Madagascar, Ny Aina offers a refreshingly honest perspective on what real conservation change looks like and why it starts with listening to the people closest to the problem. Links Learn more about Ny Aina's NGO 'Women rise wildlife research' here: https://wr-wildliferesearch.org/ Want to share your work with the wildlife health community? Email us (communications[at]wildlifedisease.org) and become a guest on the show! We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
#73 Niraj and The Carcass Café: How Carrion Shapes Wildlife Disease Risk (Australia)
What if the biggest threat to Australia's wildlife during a disease outbreak might be lying dead in the bush? Join host Dr. Cat Vendl with Niraj Meisuria, a PhD student investigating one of disease ecology's most overlooked frontiers: scavenging and carcasses. From wedge-tailed eagles brawling over kangaroo kills to brushtail possums turning carnivorous, Niraj reveals how carcasses act as ecological 'cafés', hotspots where wild dogs, dingoes, and domestic animals converge. His research in Cape York explores a sobering scenario: if rabies reaches Australia's remote north, could carcasses accelerate its spread through dingo populations? Discover why pathogens can persist in carcasses for months—or even years—and why understanding these hidden disease pathways could be critical for Australia's biosecurity. Links Check out the website Niraj's Disease Ecology Lab at Sydney Uni here . We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
#72 Ana Maria and the sloths (Costa Rica)
Dr Ana Maria Villada has spent years unraveling the mysteries of sloths—creatures so physiologically unique that they're closer to chimpanzees than they are to each other. But her work treating electrocution injuries, creating rope highways through fragmented forests, and tracking hand-raised orphans released into the wild reveals something surprising: sloths are far more adaptable than science once believed. Right now, Ana is in Uzbekistan fighting to protect sloths from international wildlife trade. Yet back in Costa Rica, her biggest challenge isn't the dramatic rescues, it's answering a fundamental question: we still don't know if sloth populations are thriving or declining in the wild. Discover how the Sloth Institute's "sloth speedways" benefit jaguars, monkeys, and porcupines. Hear why hand-raised sloths can survive in the wild. And learn what makes treating a three-fingered sloth 31% more complicated than treating a two-fingered one. Links Learn more about the Sloth Institute Ana Maria's professional Instagram page. Check out more details about Ana Maria's PhD at Andres Bello University, Chile. Read the press release and information about sloth trafficking for CITES here . UPDATE: SLOTHS HAVE BEEN LISTED ON APPENDIX II BY CONSENSUS!!!! This is a huge win for future conservation efforts! Check out the Instagram post here . We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
#71 Alex and the Bandicoots: Redefining the Wildlife Veterinarian (Australia)
By day, Dr. Alexandria Bullen treats cattle and cats at a veterinary clinic on Tasmania's rugged northwest coast. By night, she's out tracking platypuses and bandicoots in the wilderness. In this episode, host Dr. Cat Vendl meets Alex at the Australasian WDA conference to explore how she bridges clinical practice with wildlife research. Discover why golf courses and urban dog parks are unexpected bandicoot hotspots, what a decade of platypus health monitoring reveals, and how Alex's research uncovered these marsupials' surprising cold tolerance. From her transformative Antarctic journey with Homeward Bound – where migrating seabirds reminded her how interconnected our world truly is – to volunteering with Vets Beyond Borders in Indonesia, Alex shares how stepping outside traditional veterinary roles opened doors she never imagined. With a PhD on quoll health ahead, Alex delivers an empowering message: you don't need fancy resources or prestigious positions to contribute to wildlife health. Life is a choose-your-own-adventure, and the key is refusing to let imposter syndrome hold you back. Links Learn about Conservation Medicine in Regional Tasmania here Interested to learn more about the homeward bound journey? Check it out here . We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
#70 Leanne and the Swift Parrot's Future: Reimagining Wildlife Health Before Crisis (Australia & Vietnam)
What if we could prevent wildlife health crises instead of always racing to respond to them? Dr. Leanne Wicker has spent decades asking this question – from anesthetizing seals in Tasmanian car parks during lunch breaks to tracking ocean temperatures through Antarctic seal movements, from nearly a decade managing confiscated wildlife during Vietnam's bird flu outbreaks to pioneering the field of veterinary ecology back home in Australia. Through her work with critically endangered swift parrots, Leanne reveals how a single photo of a lonely nest tree standing in a logged forest transformed her approach to conservation. She's championing a radical shift: understanding that nest failure isn't just about numbers – it's about healthy parents, viable eggs, and well-fed chicks thriving in intact ecosystems. After experiencing the wildlife health frontlines across three continents, Leanne shares her vision for proactive conservation where veterinary expertise helps create conditions for wildlife to flourish, rather than waiting for disaster to strike. Links Check out Leanne's current employer and their work: Enviro-Dynamics Learn more about the swift parrot project here . We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
#69 Mya and the penguins (USA & Peru)
From Peru's copper mines to penguin colonies, PhD candidate Mya Daniels-Abdulahad tracks a toxic trail that threatens an entire species. Winner of the 2025 BioOne Ambassador Award, Mya reveals how mining waste travels through ocean food chains – with iron accumulating at four times normal levels in Humboldt penguin eggs and cadmium weakening their shells. Working between Peruvian field sites and Chicago's Brookfield Zoo, Mya uncovers how penguin embryos become trapped in "toxic time capsules" while these vulnerable birds serve as sentinels for contamination affecting entire coastal ecosystems. Discover how populations crashed from hundreds of thousands to just 16,000 birds, and why zoo surplus eggs became crucial for understanding wild population risks in this compelling One Health story. Links Check out Mya's winning video here Mya's paper on the topic Check out the lab's website Mya works with here We'd love to hear from you ... share your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
