A male gharial: The patient is ready to see you. (Photo from Wikipedia)
PULLMAN, Wash. – When it comes to infectious diseases, wild animals get a bad rap. Bats transmit rabies. Chimpanzees started Ebola. Flea-infested rats spread the Black Death. Birds carry West Nile virus.
 Gretchen Kaufman. (Photo by Linda
Weiford, WSU News)
|
But as Washington State University veterinary scientist Gretchen Kaufman likes to point out, another culprit bears some responsibility: people.
Zoonotics – diseases that jump between animals and humans – “haven’t evolved in isolation. Often they’re linked to human activity as our population grows and we encroach on natural habitats,” said Kaufman, the newest hire at WSU’s Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health.
“These are diseases shared in nature by animals and humans,” she said. “It’s not that wild animals are the bad guys.”
This, from a veterinarian who has treated captive elephants suffering from tuberculosis most likely spread by infected humans. If getting a child to swallow medicine is challenging, try dispensing 57 pills to a creature weighing 8,000 pounds.
“These are diseases shared in nature by animals and humans,” she said. “It’s not that wild animals are the bad guys.”
This, from a veterinarian who has treated captive elephants suffering from tuberculosis most likely spread by infected humans. If getting a child to swallow medicine is challenging, try dispensing 57 pills to a creature weighing 8,000 pounds.
Crocodiles and tigers in Nepal
Hired as the assistant director for global health education and training at WSU’s Allen School, Kaufman specializes in conservation medicine, a growing field that examines the connection between human, animal and environmental health.
Formerly director of Tuft University’s Center of Conservation Medicine in Massachusetts, she brings, literally, a world of experience to the Palouse. Almost annually, Kaufman travels to Nepal to assist veterinarians in treating animals and preventing disease outbreaks in the shadow of Mount Everest.
Patients have included elephants, rhinos, monkeys and gharials – an endangered six-foot crocodile displaying a long, thin snout – along with cuddlier dogs and cats. Her next 7,000 mile house call will include Bengal tigers.
“I’ve long been drawn to the diversity and dignity of wildlife,” she said. “And since we all share this planet, I try to stand up for a population in global health that has the least voice at the table.”
It’s a population that many veterinary students in the U.S. have little exposure to, and one that Kaufman hopes to illuminate. WSU students gain valuable experience at the veterinary hospital’s wildlife and exotic animals unit, but elephants, rhinos, crocodiles and Bengal tigers aren’t among the patients they see.
“Gretchen’s international focus and knowledge will help broaden our students’ learning in the classroom and beyond,” said Guy Palmer, WSU Regents professor and director of the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health.
“I’ve long been drawn to the diversity and dignity of wildlife,” she said. “And since we all share this planet, I try to stand up for a population in global health that has the least voice at the table.”
It’s a population that many veterinary students in the U.S. have little exposure to, and one that Kaufman hopes to illuminate. WSU students gain valuable experience at the veterinary hospital’s wildlife and exotic animals unit, but elephants, rhinos, crocodiles and Bengal tigers aren’t among the patients they see.
“Gretchen’s international focus and knowledge will help broaden our students’ learning in the classroom and beyond,” said Guy Palmer, WSU Regents professor and director of the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health.
Public health, animal health entwined
Among other things, Kaufman will oversee the Allen School’s new Global Animal Health Pathway Program, where veterinary students earn certification for extra course work and field experience on top of their traditional degrees.
 Elephants in Nepal are often used for transport and
tourism. (Photo by Gretchen Kaufman)
|
“I hope to encourage students to take a broad view of health that includes all animals, including wildlife and people – which are basically another type of animal,” she said. And because public health and animal health are increasingly intertwined, “I hope to reinforce the notion of global health as a responsibility for all veterinarians.”
After all, Kaufman stressed, a contagious virus can be half way across the globe one day and on U.S. soil the next. Consider, for instance, that people can no longer carry scissors on airplanes – but animal-borne viruses from forests or jungles? No problem.
It’s believed the HIV virus jumped from chimpanzees to humans in the 1920s when African bush-meat hunters butchered the chimps. The virus moved slowly at first, not beginning its aggressive journey through humanity until the 1960s, when it crossed the Atlantic Ocean by plane, according to infectious disease specialist Jacques Pepin in “The Origins of AIDS” (Cambridge University Press, 2011).
HIV is the most devastating animal virus in recent history to infiltrate the human population, said Kaufman: “Its spread is an example of the importance of training veterinarians in how to diagnose zoonotic diseases and prevent outbreaks.”
Whole new world
Whether among the pine forests and cattle ranches of the Northwest or the rice fields and river valleys of Nepal, trouble in the animal kingdom can mean trouble for people. It is Kaufman’s desire to broaden veterinary students’ interests and experiences, she said. When they’re ready to graduate from WSU, “I hope to launch them, literally, out into the world.”