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Emerging Wildlife Diseases | UNTAMED

Emerging Wildlife Diseases | UNTAMED

Overview

Learn about where diseases come from. How are they spread? This episode examines a variety of emerging wildlife diseases, with an emphasis on the One Health concept. While some disease outbreaks may be “natural”, human behaviors and influences are adding additional pressure on wildlife and the landscape, and in the end, all of us – humans, wildlife, and the environment – are affected. Learn more about the field of emerging wildlife diseases and the continually evolving research on what those diseases tell us.  

Emerging Wildlife Diseases | UNTAMED Video

Emerging Wildlife Diseases | UNTAMED

 

Learn More: Emerging Wildlife Diseases

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Interested in the One Health concept? Check out our One Health episode from Season 2 of Untamed! Explore an entire episode on the concept, watch Untamed Unfiltered, and dive deeper into more One Health resources.


Learn more about the special guests in this episode: Dr. Camille Hopkins with the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area, Dr. Megan Kirchgessner with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, and Dr. Justin Brown with Penn State's Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences.


As mentioned in UNTAMED Unfiltered, take a very deep dive into Why Bother About Wildlife Disease? by USGS National Wildlife Health Center's Milton Friend.


Learn more about zoonotic diseases from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.


Learn more about WILD-ONe (Wildlife Incident Log/Database and Online Network), the Wildlife Center's online system for patient management and data analysis designed for wildlife rehabilitators and wildlife health monitoring professionals.


Interested in learning about some of the emerging diseases mentioned in this episode? Snake Fungal Disease (SFD), Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), White-Nose Syndrome (WNS), and West Nile Virus (WNV) are just a few of the diseases that many wildlife professionals deal with on a regular basis.


Many agencies in Virginia work together to monitor emerging diseases, including the Department of Wildlife Resources, Virginia Department of Health, and Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Additional agencies such as the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study are vital in researching broader-scale wildlife diseases in larger regions.

Emerging Wildlife Diseases Activity Packet

Take the learning experience for your classroom or student group one step further with our specialized activity packets. These interactive resources combine summative reading sheets with writing and critical thinking exercises related to the topics and themes covered in each UNTAMED episode. Each page is designed to be used individually or as a complete workbook, making this activity packet perfect for educators looking to customize the lessons that can be learned from UNTAMED.

To access the Emerging Disease Activity Packet, click here.