Externships for Veterinary Students and Other Professionals

IGHHP externships are designed to introduce veterinary students, veterinarians, health professionals and allied disciplines to the One Health fields of marine animal medicine, conservation medicine and planetary health. Course format blends classroom foundational materials with lab and field work emphasizing hands-on experiential learning from qualified instructors.

Content of these courses ranges from clinical medicine for marine animals under human care, to population wellness for free-ranging animals in the ocean environment currently experiencing a variety of stressors, including pollution, climate change and plastics.

Since 1999, MARVET workshops have been conducted in various locations, including Florida, Mississippi, California, Grenada, Costa Rica, Mexico, Honduras, and the Cayman Islands. New courses are always being planned in new locations. Participants have been traditionally comprised of veterinary students, but there is interest in involving students from other professional disciplines in order to bring diversity and a wider variety of perspectives to the workshops.

Marvet Website

This course works with several free-ranging sentinel species of human, animal and environmental health, including rodents, bats, birds, amphibians, opossums, mosquitoes, sandflies and triatomine bugs. Insect vectors of Chagas' Disease, Leishmaniasis, Dengue Fever, Chikungunya and Zika viruses are being investigated as emerging and re-emerging diseases in humans and animals.

Conservet was launched in 2014 and has been conducted in various venues in Costa Rica, including the Texas A&M Soltis Center and the Monteverde Institute. Epidemiologic principles, including supportive GIS and GPS technologies, are introduced. Wild birds and poultry are PCR tested for Avian Influenza in cooperation with the Costa Rican government animal health service (Servicio Nacional de Salud Animal – SENASA). Work with other livestock species such as horses, cattle and goats is included in the context of small family farms. Root divers of health dysfunctions, including climate change, energy production methods and agricultural operations are considered. Similar to MARVET, there is interest in expanding participants beyond veterinary students.

Conservet Website

The Institute for Global Health and Health Policy
Animal, Human and Environmental One Health Initiatives