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Big Give Christmas Challenge 2024: Training Vets, Changing Lives, Saving Species
19/11/2024
Image above: Taken by Amber Wyard on the Interventions in Wild Animal Health course, which is the practical element of the Edinburgh University Masters in Conservation Medicine set up by Prof. Meredith. WVI Veterinary Advisor, Nic Masters (far right), is a long-standing tutor on the course.
Our new trustee, Prof. Anna Meredith OBE, sets the scene for our 2024 Big Give Christmas Challenge:
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“It’s vital that we protect the health of our planet’s amazing wildlife. Good health is essential not only for wildlife itself, but for the environment, and also for ourselves – human and wildlife health are inextricably linked.
But to keep wildlife healthy, we need more wildlife vets. We need vets to get the training they need to maximise what they can do practically to contribute to conservation. This is something that vets typically don’t get taught at vet school – you have to gain that more specialist knowledge and experience elsewhere. In areas of high biodiversity but limited economic resources, it can be particularly hard for vets to access training in conservation medicine.
Vets have unique medical skills to offer when it comes to managing wildlife, but it’s not always obvious how existing knowledge can be applied to conservation. Often it’s about adapting and improvising, in order to make the best use of whatever resources you have. People need training to adapt their knowledge so they can be effective members of bigger conservation teams. They need to understand how best to apply their knowledge of animal health and disease, population medicine and public health to the bigger picture of protecting biodiversity, and how the needs of all stakeholders fit together.
WVI is in a unique position to help provide that training, as we have done for the last two decades, but we can’t do it without your support.”
Our Big Give Christmas Challenge will be live between the 3rd and 10th of December.
Please SAVE THE DATE and get ready to help train more wildlife vets so that together we can make a real difference to the health of all who share our planet.
Anna Meredith is a Professor of Zoological andConservation Medicine, with particular expertise in One Health, the conservation of biodiversity, and wildlife population health. She is currently Executive Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Keele University.
