EWDA conducts its business under a set of Bylaws established by the EWDA Board and regularly updated with consultation of the EWDA membership. The current version can be found HERE
Chairperson: Gudrun Wibbelt
Gudrun Wibbelt is a wildlife pathologist at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin, Germany. After graduating at Hanover University, she became a resident for veterinary pathology at Liverpool University, UK. In 2002 she started working at the IZW being involved with captive and free-ranging wildlife. Her research interests include wildlife infectious diseases concerning particularly small mammals like bats. She joined the EWDA as a member more than ten years ago and she is a Diplomate of the European College of Zoological Medicine (Wildlife Population Health).
Vice-chair: Becki Lawson
Becki Lawson is a wildlife veterinarian based at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). After graduating from the University of Cambridge, she obtained an MSc in Wild Animal Health from ZSL and the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) and her PhD on wild bird disease epidemiology from the University of Liverpool. Her research focuses on investigating the impact of disease on wild animal welfare and biodiversity. She is a Diplomate of the European College of Zoological Medicine (Wildlife Population Health) and co-supervises a RVC/ZSL residency programme in this specialty. In addition to her role as EWDA vice-chair, she is currently secretary of the EWDA Network and serves on the WDA Awards Committee and WDA Student Awards Committee
Secretary: Miriam Maas
Miriam Maas works as researcher for the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment. Her work concentrates on wildlife-borne zoonoses, with a focus on zoonoses from wild rodents and from invasive mammal species. She has a special interest in urban ecology and the challenges of greening of cities.
She graduated from Veterinary Medicine at the University of Utrecht in 2010. With an interest in wildlife and infectious diseases, she continued with a PhD on Tuberculosis in African lions. After this PhD, she started as a researcher at the Centre of Infectious Disease control of the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment. She has been involved in the EWDA since 2005.
Treasurer: Philippe Berny
Philippe Berny is a French veterinarian, involved with WDA/EWDA since 2005. His main interest is in ecotoxicology, especially of terrestrial vertebrates, topic on which he has published some papers (focusing mostly on pesticides, rodenticides and lead poisoning). He teaches veterinary toxicology in the vet college of Lyon. He is member of various expert committees in France (Anses) and Europe (EFSA) that work on risk assessment of pesticides and drugs and develop wildlife environmental risk assessment in the regulatory framework, providing better tools to evaluate risks associated with pesticides, drugs or chemicals. As EWDA treasurer, he has helped to create and manage different accounts for the various activities of the association.
Website Coordinator: Alberto Casado Gómez
Alberto Casado Gómez is a veterinary surgeon currently living in the United Kingdom. He finished an MSc in Wild Animal Health at the Zoological Society of London and has worked in several zoological collections and rehabilitation centres in different countries. Currently, he works as a veterinary surgeon at West Midlands Safari Park and Drayton Manor Park. Alongside the EWDA, Alberto is also an active member of other organisations such as the European Association of Avian Veterinarians (EAAV) and the European Association of Zoo and Wildlife Veterinarians (EAZWV).
Newsletter Editor: Anne-Fleur Brand
Anne-Fleur Brand first became involved in the EWDA as chair of the EWDA Student Board between 2015-2017. After graduating as a veterinarian from Utrecht University in 2017 she obtained an MSc in Toxicology & Environmental Health, as part of which she focused on the effects of environmental pollution on wildlife health. Besides wildlife conservation and environmental toxicology, her special interest lies in education.
Newsletter Editor: Erik Ågren
Erik Ågren is a veterinary pathologist working at the National Veterinary Institute in Sweden, heading the National wildlife disease surveillance program. He is a Diplomate of the European College of Zoological Medicine (Wildlife Population Health) and a former chair of the Nordic section of the WDA 2003 – 2013 and vice-chair of EWDA 2013 – 2018. His work focuses on diseases in Nordic wildlife and diseases in semi-domesticated reindeer, currently working on surveillance of CWD, African Swine Fever, Echinoccus multilocularis, chytrid disease, and projects on nasal tumors in moose.
Student Activities: Helle Bernstorf Hydeskov
Helle Hydeskov is a wildlife veterinarian and doctoral candidate at Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom, where she is studying health effects of lead (Pb) in Scandinavian brown bears. Helle graduated veterinary school from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2010 and has since worked in 20 different countries with multiple stakeholders. Prior to joining Nottingham Trent University in 2019, Helle completed a 1-year small animal rotating internship at a private veterinary emergency and referral hospital in Canada and 3-year European College of Zoological Medicine residency in Wildlife Population Health at the Zoological Society of London and the Royal Veterinary College, United Kingdom. Helle became an EBVS® European Veterinary Specialist in Wildlife Population Health in 2019. Helle has been an EWDA member since 2016 and has served on the EWDA Small Grants Committee since 2019. Since 2022, she has served on the EWDA Board as the Student Activities Coordinator.
Member at Large: Francisco Ruiz-Fons
Francisco Ruiz-Fons is a wildlife disease epidemiologist at the Spanish Game and Wildlife Research Institute (IREC) in Ciudad Real, Spain. He graduated in Veterinary Medicine at the University of Murcia in 2002, and thereafter obtained a MSc in Wildlife Research and his PhD on wildlife disease epidemiology from the University of Castilla-La Mancha. His research addresses wildlife health determinants from a multidisciplinary perspective, focusing on understanding the ecological drivers of vector-borne zoonotic pathogens as a tool for more efficient and sustainable health risk management. He has been an EWDA member since 2004.
Research Advisor: Paul Holmes
Paul Holmes works in a veterinary diagnostic pathology laboratory in Shropshire, England, part of a national network of APHA (Animal and Plant Health Agency) laboratories. The work focuses on endemic and new and emerging diseases of wildlife and livestock. After graduating from Liverpool vet school and working in practice, he obtained an MSc in Wild Animal Health from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the Royal Veterinary College (RVC). He now helps coordinate a partnership of enthusiastic British organisations that contribute to wildlife disease surveillance and investigation throughout GB. He has a particular interest in biodiversity and conservation.
Eastern Countries Communications: Gábor Czirják
Gábor Á. Czirják is a research scientist at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) Berlin, Germany. After graduating in 2004 from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca, Romania, he obtained his PhD in 2011 in the field of Veterinary Medicine & Ecology, Biodiversity and Evolution from the same university and from Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse, France. He joined the IZW as head of the wildlife immunology lab within the Department of Wildlife Diseases in 2010. His research interest covers several areas from the fields of eco-immunology, evolution of host-parasite interactions, conservation physiology and ecology of wildlife diseases. Over the years, he has been working with several taxonomic groups (reptiles, birds, mammals), but recently he focuses mainly on bats and carnivores. Member of the EWDA/WDA since 2004…between 2004-2008 was a student representative of Romania, and since 2016 responsible for the communication with Eastern European countries. He is also a diplomate of the European Collegue of Zoological Medicine (Wildlife Population Health)
Eastern Countries Communications: Đuro Huber
Đuro Huber graduated from veterinary medicine at the University of Zagreb in 1975, specialising in ecology (master’s degree) and wildlife parasitology (PhD in 1979). He became a member of the WDA in 1979/80 while working with a Fulbright grant at the Wild Animal Disease Center in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA. He worked for 45 years at the Biology Department of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Zagreb, primarily teaching Zoology and Ecology, where he is now professor emeritus. He conducts studies of large carnivores (bear, wolf and lynx), whith research methods that include handling of free living (for radio-telemetry tracking), captive and dead animals for studies on ecology, morphology, physiology, health status, nutritional and genetic aspects; all applied to conservation and management. So far, Đuro has published 185 scientific papers.
Past Chair: Karin Lemberger
Karin Lemberger has been interested in wildlife pathology since she began working on her thesis on Saint Lawrence beluga toxicology and pathology in Quebec in 2000. She then moved to the University of Illinois Zoological Pathology Program in Chicago where she completed her residency and board certification in anatomic pathology. She later started here own histopathology practice in Lyon, France where she is still working as a consultant in Zoo and Wildlife Pathology. Her professional interests primarily include diagnostic pathology of captive exotic and wildlife species. She is involved in long-term disease surveillance/monitoring as part of comprehensive management of free-ranging species. This involves capacity building in wildlife necropsy techniques of regional veterinary laboratory and other French researchers. She is part of the steering committee of the EVAAS wildlife expertise platform at the National Veterinary School of Lyon where she supervises the anatomic pathology section.
Student Representative: Anna Langguth
Anna is a Veterinary Surgeon who qualified in Germany in 2019. Throughout her studies, she gained experience working with free-ranging and captive wildlife at the Institute of Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hannover, the Sachsenhagen Wildlife Rehabilitation centre, and Vienna Zoo. After graduation, she started working on her doctoral thesis on the Oral Rabies Vaccination of European Wolves whilst working in small animal emergency practice. Anna completed this project in early 2022 and is currently enrolled in the MSc in Wild Animal Health, jointly offered by the Royal Veterinary College and the Zoological Society of London. She has a particular interest in immunology and epidemiology, and is continuing her work on rabies in canids, looking into antibody levels in African Wild Dogs following vaccination against the virus.
Past EWDA Board Members
Position | 2008 | 2010 | 2012 | 2014 | 2016 | 2018 | 2020 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Accounts officer | Open | Ursula Hoefle | Ursula Hoefle | Marc Artois | Marc Artois | Marc Artois | Marc Artois |
Chair | Paul Duff | Thijs Kuiken | Christian Gortazar | Lisa Yon | Marie-Pierre Ryser | Marie-Pierre Ryser | Karin Lemberger |
Eastern countries communications | Karoly Erdelyi | Karoly Erdelyi | Karoly Erdelyi | Karoly Erdelyi | Karoly Erdelyi | Gorazd Vengušt | Gorazd Vengušt |
Eastern countries communications | Kai Froelich | Marie-Pierre Ryser | Marie-Pierre Ryser | Marie-Pierre Ryser | Gabor Czirjak | Gabor Czirjak | Gabor Czirjak |
Member-at-large | Miriam Maas | Miriam Maas | Miriam Maas | Paul Tavernier | Riccardo Orusa | ||
Member-at-large | Riccardo Orusa | ||||||
Newsletter editor | Paul Duff | Paul Duff | Paul Duff | Paul Duff | Open | Anne-Fleur Brand | Anne-Fleur Brand |
Newsletter editor | Marc Artois | Marc Artois | Marc Artois | Lidewij Wiersma | Lidewij Wiersma | Erik Ågren | Erik Ågren |
Past chair | Dolores Gavier-Widen | Paul Duff | Thijs Kuiken | Christian Gortazar | Lisa Yon | Marie-Pierre Ryser | |
Research advisor | Thijs Kuiken | Vic Simpson | Vic Simpson | Vic Simpson | Andrew Breed | Andrew Breed | Paul Holmes |
Secretary | Open | Lisa Yon | Lisa Yon | Karin Lemberger | Karin Lemberger | Gudrun Wibbelt | Gudrun Wibbelt |
Student activities | Christian Gortazar | Ignasi Marco | Becki Lawson | Steven van Beurden | Lineke Begman | Jorge Ramón López Olvera | Jorge Ramón López Olvera |
Student representative | Josanne Verhagen | Adam Michel | Estelle Rousselet | Estelle Rousselet | Anne-Fleur Brand | Anna Bauuw | Marco Vecchiato |
Treasurer | Ursula Hoefle | Philippe Berny | Philippe Berny | Philippe Berny | Philippe Berny | Philippe Berny | Philippe Berny |
Vice-chair | Erik Ågren | Erik Ågren | Erik Ågren | Karin Lemberger | Becki Lawson | ||
Website coordinator | Dez Delahay | Javier Millan | Javier Millan | Rogier Bodewes | Rogier Bodewes | Sylvain Larrat | Alberto Casado Gómez |