The Zoo, Wildlife, and Exotic Animal Medicine club hosted its first annual symposium on October 16-17 entitled “Medicine and Management of Non-Traditional Species.” The symposium was envisioned, planned, and created by students with the support of faculty mentor, Dr. Rob Bildfell. The schedule counted for a total of 12.5 hours of continuing education. A total of 579 hours of CE was awarded. There were 57 total registrants for the symposium; of those, 9 were DVM/PhD (including one from Hawaii, one from Switzerland, and one from Seattle), 21 OSU CVM students, 11 Washington State University vet students, 5 OSU pre-vet students, and 4 Fisheries and Wildlife students. Thirty people attended the wet lab on Marine Mammal Necropsy and Mortality, run by Dr. Rob Bildfell. Dr. Bildfell has been an outstanding faculty mentor for the club. Wet lab attendees helped collect samples from stranded pinnipeds for ongoing research being conducted by the Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network. Thanks to Jim Rice for providing specimens.
Necropsy performed on a stranded pinniped.
The club was able to host three out of town speakers, thanks to support from OSU CVM Biomedical Sciences Department and Oxbow Animal Nutrition. The speakers included Dr. Brian Speer, a renowned avian medicine expert; Dr. Cathy Johnson-Delaney, who has lectured around the world on exotic animal medicine topics; and Dr. Craig Packer, who was the keynote speaker. Dr. Packer is known for his lion research, and has spent the last 30 years working on these carnivores. He discussed disease epidemiology regarding the lion populations in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. Other speakers included Dr. Lisa Harrenstien and Nicole Nicassio-Hiskey (Oregon Zoo); Dr. Mitch Finnegan (Oregon Zoo); Dr. Ursula Bechert (OSU); Dr. Dan Lewer (Oregon Coast Aquarium); Dr. Leon Pielstick (Wild Horse and Burro Project); and Dr. Hernan Montilla (OSU). A complete schedule of the symposium can be seen here. Additional photos can be found here.
The ZWE club plans on working in conjunction with Washington State University’s own Zoo, Wildlife, and Exotic Animal Medicine club to host an annual symposium on non-traditional animal medicine. The plan is to rotate locations and management of the symposium every year. The visiting WSU students were hosted by OSU students and had the opportunity to discuss what it will take to host the symposium in Pullman, Wash., in 2011. The ZWE club is excited to start a lasting collaboration with Washington State University with the goal of continuing to improve education opportunities in this often overlooked field of veterinary medicine. Look for the next symposium in Washington State. In 2012, the symposium will return to Corvallis, Ore.
— Kadie Anderson, Class of 2011
