The survival chances of New Zealand’s endangered native wildlife are about to get better.

 


The conservation medicine centre will emphasise the connections between animal, human and environmental health

In 2007 Auckland Zoo opened its hi-tech New Zealand Centre for Conservation Medicine (NZCCM), which will specialise in teaching, research and veterinary service for our threatened native fauna.

“NZCCM represents an investment in New Zealand’s biosecurity and wildlife conservation infrastructure,” says project leader and senior zoo vet Dr Richard Jakob-Hoff. “It connects the health of the environment to the health of people and animals.”

The state-of-the-art $4.6 million hospital – with funds raised by the Auckland Zoological Park Charitable Trust with a third of the support from the ASB Community Trust – will include a surgery, treatment room, diagnostic lab, X-ray and ultra-sound room, intensive care unit, pharmacy and isolation room.

The facilities will be used to treat animals kept at the zoo, but also for research into bigger problems such as the global decline of amphibians, including New Zealand’s native frogs, and the spread of disease among wildlife.

“Conservation medicine emphasises the connections between animal, human and environmental health,” Dr Jakob-Hoff says.

“Seventy fi ve per cent of emerging diseases, such as SARS and bird fl u, have an animal origin. These diseases have shown us that they can be transmitted to humans.”

The zoo is committed to sharing its fi ndings. The conservation medicine centre will help the Department of Conservation and Biosecurity New Zealand in their work, while special viewing rooms will allow the public to watch vets in action.

Closed-circuit television will give visitors close-up views of examinations and operations.

“People fi nd our work with animals fascinating and we are keen to share that with them as much as possible,” Dr Jakob-Hoff says.

With a 50-seat lecture theatre, the centre will also be a place for specialist training, including workshops and seminars on conservation and biosecurity.

Zoo Director Glen Holland says that, as a conservation organisation, Auckland Zoo’s outreach programmes such as the new centre play a vital role in supporting the survival of animals in the wild.

“Our veterinarians are regularly consulted by overseas agencies and conservation groups,” he says, “because the work they do here with native species is of direct relevance to species world-wide.”

www.aucklandzoo.co.nz

  • In 2007 ASB Community Trust granted the conservation medicine centre project $519,806