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With one of less than 20 zoological medicine residency programs offered in the nation, the N.C. Zoo is quickly making a name as a training ground for some of the country’s top zoo animal doctors.
The residency program was begun in the early 1990s by the zoo’s present chief veterinarian Mike Loomis and colleagues at N.C. State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. One person is chosen each year (out of 20 to 50 applicants) for the three-year program offered jointly by the two institutions. Although there are many other veterinary residency programs offered throughout the country, in a variety of specialties, the N.C. Zoo’s is one of the few that gives the residents an opportunity to learn about and work directly with exotic and non-domestic animals.
The program has produced nearly 10 percent of the veterinarians who have attained board certification in the field of zoological medicine.
“One of the special things about the program is that it trains very versatile veterinarians in the sense that they are well-equipped not just to go into clinical practice in a zoo,” said Dr. Ryan DeVoe, senior veterinarian at the zoo and a 2004 graduate of the program himself. “They could go into academia, research, wildlife management – just about any area that has anything to do with zoological medicine.”
So when other resident veterinarians are working on horses, dogs and cats, residents at the N.C. Zoo are drawing blood from elephants, checking rhinos’ temperatures and examining lions’ teeth.
Zoo veterinary care is a specialized field with only about 300 vets in the United States working full time in zoo medicine. In the N.C. Zoo’s program, there are three areas of emphasis: general zoo medicine; aquatic medicine, which includes working at the Marine Mammal Center in California and a research lab on the North Carolina coast; and free-ranging wildlife, which includes fieldwork both in this country and abroad – resident field projects have ranged from Alaska to Africa to Antarctica.
According to DeVoe, residents not only benefit personally from the advanced training they receive from the program, but also complete publication requirements necessary to be eligible for board certifications through the American College of Zoological Medicine – giving back to their peers and profession, as DeVoe puts it.
Program representatives look for candidates who want to make a difference in zoological medicine and be leaders in the field. Funding for the program is provided by the N.C. Zoological Society and the N.C. State College of Veterinary Medicine.
Exotic animals and domestic animals get many of the same diseases, so many diseases are treated similarly. The difference is how the vets learn to actually deliver the medical care to exotic animals. Imagine giving a giraffe an eye exam, checking a laceration on a polar bear or performing a procedure on a hummingbird that weighs only ounces.
Since its inception, the program has attracted and trained some of the best and brightest young minds dedicated to the health and the well-being of wild animals. After completing the three-year residency, many have moved on to top veterinary jobs.
Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka from Uganda was the 10th doctor to go through the residency program and was also the first non-U.S. resident to enter the program. Before coming to the N.C. Zoo for the program, Kalema-Zikusoka was the veterinarian for the Uganda Wildlife Authority. There, she made significant contributions to Uganda’s efforts to maintain healthy populations of endangered species, including the rare mountain gorilla.
Following the completion of her residency program, Kalema-Zikusoka became Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Conservation Through Public Health, an international grassroots NGO that promotes conservation with public health by improving primary health services for people and animals around protected areas throughout Uganda.
The veterinary residency program is made possible, in part, through the support of the North Carolina Zoological Society and the special help of other donors. That support has helped the zoo to develop and maintain a program which is producing some of the country’s finest and best-trained new veterinarians.
Tom Gillespie lives in Trinity and is a journalist and public affairs specialist at the North Carolina Zoo. For more information on the zoo’s plant and animal collections, special events and education programs, go to their Web site at www.nczoo.org
