As the first of several new K. Lisa Yang Wildlife Health Fellowships, a unique wildlife pathology position has been designed to specifically focus on worldwide wildlife disease outbreak emergency investigation.

The occurrence of unusual or mass mortality events in wildlife is increasing and threatens species conservation and ecosystem integrity. Examples of such events include the sudden mass mortality of approximately 200,000 saiga antelope in Kazakhstan in 2015, attributed to Pasteurella multocida type B triggered by a climatic anomaly. Elsewhere, fatal septicemia associated with an obscure Pasteurella multocida-like bacterium called Bisgaard taxon 45 caused the deaths of 34 elephants in Zimbabwe in 2020 and may explain the deaths of 350 more in neighboring Botswana in the same year. Many more mortality events remain unexplained.

“Many parts of the world lack the surveillance systems required to detect these incidents, as well as the professional and laboratory capacity to investigate their causes,” notes Dr. Steve Osofsky, Director of the Cornell K. Lisa Yang Center for Wildlife Health. “Understanding the etiological factors and conditions responsible for unexplained mortality events is critical to adopting measures that reduce the likelihood of their repetition or the severity of events when they do occur. This is particularly important when wildlife mortality is shaped by human actions, including but not at all limited to climate change, for example through disruption of the physical, biotic or chemical environment.”

After an international search, Carmen R. Smith ’17, DVM ’21, DACVP, has been selected as the inaugural Cornell K. Lisa Yang Center for Wildlife Health Free-Ranging Wildlife Pathology Fellow. Dr. Smith will focus on unraveling the causes and conditions responsible for unexplained wildlife mortality events, as well as, quite importantly, on building sustainable capacity for wildlife pathology, disease surveillance and diagnostic testing around the world. He is the winner of several pathology awards, including the American College of Veterinary Pathologists / American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians Diagnostic Pathology Award, the Frank R. Bloom Prize for Excellence in Pathology, and the Anna Olafson Sussex Pathology Award.

Dr. Smith’s pathology training was through the Eddie Gould Residency in Zoo and Wildlife Pathology, a collaboration between Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Bronx Zoo, and emphasized disease investigation in domestic animals as well as in free-ranging and captive wildlife. Carmen’s special interests include developing molecular tools and diagnostic technologies. As a Cornell veterinary student, with support from the Expanding Horizons and Engaged Cornell programs, Carmen worked alongside pathology faculty at IPB University in Bogor, Indonesia to help summarize the causes of mortality of free-ranging Javan and Sumatran rhinoceroses.

“This fellowship is simply a dream come true for me! As a veterinary pathologist, my job is to act as a disease detective, piecing together macroscopic, microscopic, molecular as well as chemical clues to unmask and identify pathogens or other causes of illness. In order to conserve wildlife, we need to do all we can to identify the causes of population declines— becoming the first Cornell K. Lisa Yang Wildlife Health Fellow in this role is simply an amazing honor and opportunity,” Dr. Smith notes. “In addition, wildlife populations can be sentinels for risks to public health, veritable canaries in the coal mine,” adds Dr. Osofsky. “The Center team is just so very thankful to Lisa Yang for the generous gift that made this fellowship, which can support a fellow for up to three years, possible. And we are all of course very excited about Carmen’s launch into this unique, career-building experience, which will undoubtedly enhance our understanding of the threats facing the diversity of species and ecosystems we all care so much about.”