Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Capacity building for wildlife health professionals: the Wildlife Health Bridge

Meredith, Anna; Anderson, Neil; Malik, Pradeep; Nigam, Parag; Thomas, Alexandra; Masters, Nic; Guthrie, Amanda; Davidson, Hannah; Patterson, Stuart; Amin, Rajan; Skerratt, Lee; Kock, Richard; Sainsbury, Anthony

Authors

Neil Anderson

Pradeep Malik

Parag Nigam

Alexandra Thomas

Nic Masters

Amanda Guthrie

Hannah Davidson

Stuart Patterson

Rajan Amin

Lee Skerratt

Richard Kock

Anthony Sainsbury



Abstract

The Wildlife Health Bridge was established in 2009 with the aim of improving the expertise and knowledge base of wildlife health professionals in biodiverse low- and middle-income countries. The Wildlife Health Bridge centres around partnerships among educational institutions: the Zoological Society of London, the Royal Veterinary College, the University of Edinburgh’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, the Wildlife Institute of India, and the University of Melbourne Veterinary School. The Wildlife Health Bridge provides quality education in wildlife health, ecosystem health, and wildlife biology, facilitates the interchange of students between collaborating countries for research studies and provides a global graduate network of wildlife health professionals. In addition to established Masters’ level wildlife health training programmes run by the partner organisations, the Wildlife Health Bridge has developed a collaborative field-based course, Interventions in Wild Animal Health, provided annually in India since 2016, which has trained 138 veterinarians to date, enhancing local and international capacity in managing emerging wildlife health issues and building global professional linkages. The Wildlife Health Bridge’s Wild Animal Alumni network facilitates networking and exchange between Wildlife Health Bridge institutions and graduates, with over 701 members from 67 countries, half of which are biodiverse low- and middle-income countries. Collaboration between educational institutions has enabled new ideas and ongoing developments in the delivery of materials and learning outcomes. The Wildlife Health Bridge is building global capacity in trained wildlife health professionals, through educational programmes and a synergised network, with the aim of impacting conservation practice to benefit human, domestic animal and wildlife health.

Citation

Meredith, A., Anderson, N., Malik, P., Nigam, P., Thomas, A., Masters, N., …Sainsbury, A. (2022). Capacity building for wildlife health professionals: the Wildlife Health Bridge. One Health & Implementation Research, https://doi.org/10.20517/ohir.2022.03

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 11, 2022
Online Publication Date May 27, 2022
Publication Date 2022
Deposit Date Mar 11, 2024
Journal One Health & Implementation Research
Publisher OAE Publishing
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
DOI https://doi.org/10.20517/ohir.2022.03
Keywords Capacity, conservation, interventions, partnership, professional, training, veterinarian, wildlife health
Publisher URL https://www.oaepublish.com/articles/ohir.2022.03