The primary purpose of the externship is to expose the veterinary student to the many aspects of wildlife population health. Major objectives are to acquaint the veterinary student with (1) the role of veterinarians in the maintenance of healthy wildlife populations, (2) the interaction of wildlife management and wildlife health, and (3) examples of major diseases of free-ranging wildlife.
Learning objectives that an extern is expected to achieve upon completion of the SCWDS externship in relation to the (modified) AVMA Clinical Competencies are as follows:
- Problem Solving and Diagnostic Skills: An extern should be able to develop accurate differential diagnoses to wildlife mortality events and develop an appropriate diagnostic plan including samples to take, and ancillary tests to request.
- Health Promotion, Disease Prevention, Zoonosis, and Food Safety: An extern should have an appreciation for biosafety, biosecurity, and zoonotic diseases of free-ranging wildlife including appropriate personal protective equipment and procedures for diagnostic investigations. Externs should also appreciate how to appropriately package and ship samples to a laboratory.
- Demonstration of Knowledge of Wildlife Diseases: An extern should gain basic knowledge of common wildlife diseases through participation on the diagnostic service, rounds, seminars or teleconferences, as well as their assigned project.
- Written and Oral Communication: An extern should gain experience with writing gross necropsy reports as well as scientific and translational writing for a lay audience, and be required to do a 10-15 minute oral presentation on a wildlife health topic.
- Professionalism: An extern will have opportunities to interact with faculty, students, staff, and potentially wildlife agency representatives, and is thus expected to maintain a professional demeanor throughout his/her externship.
- Proficiency at Necropsy and Diagnostic Sampling: An extern should gain experience at necropsy of a variety of wildlife species including birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians depending on the case load. In general, a SCWDS extern completes the rotation with a good understanding of avian anatomy and should be able to determine the sex and approximate age of a bird. An extern should be confident in obtaining appropriate samples for histology, bacteriology, toxicology, and virology as well as determining when each ancillary test may be appropriate for a particular work up.
- Appreciation for Research in Veterinary Medicine: An extern should develop an appreciation for challenges and complications involved in wildlife research and be familiar with current topics. They should also gain an appreciation of where additional information on wildlife disease topics can be found.
The externs will interact primarily with faculty and staff that participate in the diagnostic service including a board-certified anatomic pathologist, a DVM/PhD with extensive pathology and research experience, a DVM with extensive field experience, and DVM's that are pursuing graduate school training in wildlife disease ecology. The externs will also have opportunities to interact with research and service faculty, staff, undergraduate, and graduate students with experience and interests in studying the health of wild animals at a population-level. The facilities include a necropsy and tissue processing facility (biosafety level 2) and three active research laboratories with capacity for virology, parasitology, and molecular testing. SCWDS faculty and staff have participated in numerous projects related to wildlife health surveillance, diagnostics, teaching, and research. Specific diseases of which SCWDS maintains expertise include: hemorrhagic disease of deer, avian influenza, exotic arthropod and Culicoides sp. surveillance, tick-borne pathogens, wildlife parasitiology, and arboviruses.
The extern’s activities will greatly depend upon work in progress at SCWDS during the time period of the externship, and the diagnostic caseload can vary significantly. Veterinary externs will be expected to work independently on their assignments, and should expect down time. An extern histology slide set and sample scenarios will be provided during periods when the service is slow. An effort will be made to expose the student to a broad variety of experiences, but we are also expecting students to take initiative to learn about projects that they may be interested in. Students will participate in wildlife mortality investigations and ongoing wildlife disease research. When field trips are possible, participation will be encouraged. However, opportunities for field work are rare and vary depending on ongoing projects. Opportunities for field work cannot be guaranteed. The student will be expected to respond to questions pertaining to assigned readings, lectures, and field experiences. Review of gross lesions of wildlife diseases are presented as time permits and during biweekly diagnostician meetings that externs are expected to attend. The externship program is a team teaching effort, and the extern will be assigned to various SCWDS personnel during the program. The extern will be encouraged to attend seminars, rounds, and any additional activities potentially occurring at UGA that may be relevant to wildlife health with opportunities to interact with other professionals. In addition to the day-to-day responsibilities (field work, necropsy duty, etc), externs will be assigned a project that will need to be completed by the last day of your externship. The project includes: 1) a 10-15 page literature review on a wildlife health topic, 2) a 2-3 page article for a wildlife biologist audience potentially suitable for the SCWDS quarterly newsletter, and 3) an oral presentation. Example assignments can be found on the SCWDS W drive and previous SCWDS BRIEFS (http://vet.uga.edu/scwds/briefs). The assignment topic will be determined the first week of the externship. The extern is expected to be working on this assignment when no other activity is planned, but should not take priority over daily diagnostic duties.
Contact Ms. Kelli Chase of UGA for housing information (http://vet.uga.edu/academic/people)