Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife; Wildlife Health & Population Laboratory

• Field-based wildlife veterinary externship
• Clinical and pathological workups with state wildlife veterinarians
• Marine mammal, terrestrial and avian wildlife species
• Fish pathology lab
• Sea lion capture and anesthesia for radio telemetry placement
• Morbidity and mortality workup from field to diagnostic lab
• Population and reproductive studies
• Fish hatchery health assessments and treatments

About our program

• The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) - Wildlife Health and Population Lab Program has two primary functions:

  • To provide fish and wildlife health support to all aspects of the agency and its more than 1,000 employees as part of the agencies' mission to protect and enhance fish and wildlife and their habitats for use and enjoyment by present and future generations of Oregonians. 
  • To provide support to field biologists by processing tissues for characterizing population and age structure of harvested animals. 

• The goal of the ODFW veterinary student externship is to introduce 4th year veterinary students via a clinical rotation, to the profession of agency-based wildlife veterinary medicine and provide a hands-on understanding of the types of tasks and activities our wildlife veterinarians engage in including:

• Disease outbreak investigation
• Training biologists in safe wildlife capture and sampling techniques
• Wildlife disease surveillance
• Participating in large captures of various wildlife species for translocation events, wildlife health evaluation, or research     

• Eligibility for the Externship:

• Must be a senior student in good academic standing from an accredited college of veterinary medicine. We accept up to 6 students annually for 3 -6 week rotations.

  Possible activities:

• Capture Events (deer, elk, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, pronghorn antelope, sage grouse, harbor seals, sea lions, etc.), wildlife disease outbreak investigation, health checks/ disease sampling on game birds such as grouse, pheasants and quail that are being moved to augment other populations, working at Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) check stations during deer and elk hunting seasons, caring for orphaned wildlife,  performing fish health checks at hatcheries, and  population laboratory wildlife tooth age and reproductive tract processing.*
• Students may conduct a project during their externship involving researching a current Oregon wildlife health topic for presentation to staff or posting on our website*

• *The timing and occurrence of potential activities listed above are subject to change due to many factors including weather, task priorities, emergency outbreaks, etc.. Humane euthanasia of injured wildlife or invasive species or as part of management activities is conducted routinely by our veterinary staff.

• Submit a cover letter and resume or CV and  Letter of Recommendation from veterinary faculty

• Your cover letter should include the dates you are interested in and would like us to consider.  Please provide multiple possible dates if available as we allow only one student at a time with no overlap of externship periods.
• Please address material to Dr. Julia Burco and send to Julia.D.Burco@state.or.us or fax to (541) 757-4252

• Colin Gillin, State Wildlife Veterinarian, MS, DVM, Residency in Conservation Medicine, Tufts Univ.
• Julia Burco, DVM, MS, PhD, epidemiologist Staff veterinarian
• Rob Bildfell, DVM, Phd, Diplomate ACVP, Oregon State University, wildlife pathologist

• journals (JWM, JWD, EID, JVDI, JAVMA)
• complete microsoft PC databases
• Monday rounds

8 hours, 5 days per week Arrive at 8 AM, conduct appropriate veterinary extern oriented tasks under the mentorship and instruction of the department veterinarians.

Wildlife Health and Population Lab
7118 NE Vandenburg Ave
Corvallis, OR 97330
United States