Latest News

OHI's Marcela Uhart is featured in a recent NPR Goats & Soda article written by Gabrielle Emanuel 

As a wildlife veterinarian in Florida in the 1990s, Christine Kreuder Johnson could think of only one place to turn for help when she faced mysterious die-offs of birds and sea turtles: UC Davis.

Johnson had previously worked as a veterinarian to horses competing at the racetrack, but found herself increasingly drawn to puzzles at the population level, like the one she now faced at a national wildlife refuge. But she needed help.

“I had all the puzzle pieces, but I couldn’t put it together,” she said.

'When They Were Students' is a feature highlighting the diverse and unique journeys of our OHI team members into their current One Health careers.

Hey, I’m David. I grew up in Detroit in the ‘80s and was into making bad films with friends, editing the high school literary magazine, hanging at Grateful Dead and Phish festivals in the Great Lakes region, and later anything boho, indie, or punk in and around Chicago and Detroit.

Our California Raptor Center director Dr. Michelle Hawkins is lead author on a recent publication describing the prevalence, clinical findings, lesions, and risk factors associated with chlamydial infections in raptors admitted to a university veterinary medical teaching hospital from 1993-2022.

For more information and findings, check out the full publication in AVMA's American Journal of Veterinary Research:

California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW) Guidance for Wildlife & Fire Events is now available. 

View Online

Download PDF

The application deadline for an exciting postdoc opportunity in our team has been extended to January 31, 2025! If you want to help investigate the ecological drivers of zoonotic virus emergence and develop models to understand spillover risk, apply online at ohi.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/careers

The 2025 Rx One Health Field Institute welcomes you to join us June 22–July 5, 2025! Explore California's vibrant and diverse ecosystems while building One Health skills! The 2025 theme is Biodiversity Conservation.

The sounds of barking elephant seals are again in the air along the breeding grounds of Península Valdés, Argentina—but it’s quieter. Roughly a year after a massive outbreak of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza killed more than 17,000 elephant seals, including about 97% of their pups, scientists estimate that only about a third of the elephant seals normally expected here returned.

Lizzy Ashley’s PhD research in Dr. Christine Kreuder Johnson’s lab focuses on the ecology and epidemiology of avian influenza (e.g., HPAI H5N1) in marine wildlife. In California, she partners with the Oiled Wildlife Care Network, government agencies, and rehabilitation centers to conduct influenza surveillance in stranded and apparently healthy pinnipeds, waterbirds, and sea otters.

As the Park Fire grew to become the fourth-largest wildfire in California's recorded history, the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine’s California Veterinary Emergency Team (CVET) quickly mobilized for their inaugural deployment to provide crucial veterinary care for animals caught in the fire’s path.

Brian is completing his final year as a veterinary student at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

Growing up, there was pretty much always at least one dog in our household. They were some of my closest friends who would always be there whenever I needed them. They taught me how to care for animals and gave me some sense of responsibility in their training and care.

California Veterinary Emergency Team (CVET) has been deployed in response to the Park Fire since Thursday July 25. From the origin of the fire and through the weekend, Butte County and animal volunteers have cared for 164 animals in designated disaster animal shelters, 100 small animal and 64 large animal. CVET has provided veterinary services at both the small and large animal shelters and operationally has run over 50 veterinary requests.

The Rx One Health Field Institute is a groundbreaking experiential learning program that brings together One Health professionals from around the globe. The 2024 cohort included participants from 14 countries (and five continents), representing a broad spectrum of disciplines such as veterinary medicine, nutrition, public health, wildlife conservation, and laboratory sciences. The program provided a unique platform for these professionals to collaborate, exchange knowledge, and develop interdisciplinary solutions to complex health challenges.

Jessicah Kurere is a Kenyan veterinarian working with Vetinwild and Ewaso Lions with special interest in disease surveillance at the interface between domestic and wild carnivores in Northern Kenya.

I am from a pastoralist community and we have a lot of livestock. We live in a very rural area so there is a lot of livestock and scarce resources including access to veterinary services. So I am one of the very few veterinarians coming from my local area. That was my passion - to support my community.

Alejandro Mena is a veterinarian and pursuing a PhD in Public Health with a One Health focus at the Emerging Pathogens Institute from the Department of Environmental & Global Health, University of Florida.