Research Associate in Wildlife Conservation and Animal Health

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Shared Landscapes research group at the University of Manchester. We have been awarded a Darwin Initiative Innovation grant to create a regional wildlife health working group in East Africa, comprised of wildlife and livestock veterinarians and conservation stakeholders. This group will use innovative tools that bridge traditional epidemiological knowledge about wildlife health with conventional diagnostic methods, such as non-invasive sampling using ecoimmunology biomarkers. The working group will generate evidence about wildlife diseases affecting conservation and poverty alleviation, and recommendations and best practices for scalable and sustainable approaches to improving surveillance of wildlife health in East Africa.

Shared Landscape Project

Nearly half of East Africa’s large herbivore species are either threatened or conservation dependent as a result of habitat loss, resource competition, hunting and infectious diseases (IUCN). Infectious disease is listed as threat in nearly one in five large herbivore species in East Africa. Because evaluating the effects of disease on wildlife populations is logistically and technically challenging, wildlife disease surveillance in East Africa is mainly reactive and focused on outbreaks of ‘notifiable’ diseases with epidemic or pandemic potential. By contrast, the impact of endemic, chronic pathogens and parasites on wildlife population health is virtually unknown. The close proximity of wildlife with livestock also has implications for livestock health in poor and marginalised communities. These diseases impose significant health burdens on livestock. Although there is clear evidence for production costs associated with endemic diseases, their largest impact on the poor is the cost of treatment. As the majority of infectious diseases in livestock and humans emerges from wildlife, a lack of wildlife surveillance also has adverse implications for managing the health of domestic animals and humans. The trend towards increasing livestock density coupled with environmental change is likely to increase transmission potential between livestock and wildlife species, with negative consequences for both. Strategies to improve wildlife and livestock health and reduce transmission of infectious diseases will not only help conserve biodiversity but also reduce poverty through improved food and economic security.

The Shared Landscape project brings together a team of academics from across the university (Earth and Environmental Sciences, Biology Maths, Geography and the Global Development Institute) together with partners from East African range states (Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda). In addition to core investigators, the team is comprised of PhD and master’s students working on allied projects.

Enquiries about the vacancy, shortlisting and interviews:

Susanne Shultz

susanne.shultz@manchester.ac.uk

General enquiries:

Email: People.recruitment@manchester.ac.uk

Technical support:

https://jobseekersupport.jobtrain.co.uk/support/home

This vacancy will close for applications at midnight on the closing date.

Please see the link below for the Further Particulars document which contains the person specification criteria.

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