Environment & Wildlife

Climate change is likely to drive rodent-borne arenaviruses into parts of South America that have never faced these diseases, putting new communities of people at risk, finds a study from the University of California, Davis. 

When the H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza virus was discovered on a poultry farm in Asia in 1996, there was little indication that it would become so widespread and so destructive. Within 30 years, it reached every continental region except Oceania, infecting more than 400 million poultry, tens of thousands of elephant seals and sea lions, about 1,000 people and many other mammals and wild birds. 

Pinnipeds, which include seals and sea lions, have been hit unusually hard by the virus.

Seven weaned elephant seal pups in California’s Año Nuevo State Park tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory confirmed Tuesday evening.

An unassuming metal barn erected recently at the southern edge of the University of California, Davis campus houses some advanced video technology for a uniquely UC Davis project.

Jonna Mazet arrived at UC Davis as an undergraduate curious about veterinary medicine in 1986, and is retiring four decades of groundbreaking campus initiatives later, having built a legacy of cross-discipline innovation on global health problem-solving, particularly regarding emerging infectious diseases and conservation challenges.

"I am always motivated by the excellence, innovation and the collaborative spirit at UC Davis," she said.

Protecting wildlife health is critical to achieving a more sustainable future, according to new research linking wildlife health surveillance to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Edward, a 2-year-old wolverine at San Francisco Zoo & Gardens, is seeing better thanks to a first-ever novel lens corrective procedure on a wolverine’s eye. Following a recent cataract surgery, he became the first wolverine to have a custom-made intraocular lens implanted in his left eye. 

Motion-activated field cameras, GPS collars, wolf scat analysis and cattle tail hair samples are helping University of California, Davis, researchers shed new light on how an expanding and protected gray wolf population is affecting cattle operations, leading to millions of dollars in losses.

With approximately 2,000 registered attendees, members of the veterinary and human health communities, scientists, media, policymakers, general public and others showed their concerns about avian flu by tuning into the February 19 UC Health Grand Rounds. The one-hour, online session featured three experts from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and one from UC Davis Health.

Every winter, millions of migratory birds fly south to warmer locales, passing over California Central Valley dairies and poultry farms. Many of these wild waterfowl are carrying the virus that causes avian influenza, based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's wild-bird surveillance, says Maurice Pitesky, University of California Cooperative Extension poultry specialist in the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis.