Zoo Scientist Focuses on the Big Picture

CHICAGO —  In a modest office in a small zoo in Chicago, a scientist is tracking the deadly West Nile virus that is moving west from the East Coast farther and faster than expected.

While zoo veterinarians cope with animals that become ill, Dominic Travis must determine how to prevent those illnesses by protecting zoo populations throughout the country from ever coming into contact with the wild birds and mosquitoes that carry and transmit the virus.

Travis is the staff veterinary epidemiologist at the Lincoln Park Zoo, which makes him about as rare as a snow leopard.

Many zoos have specialists on staff--nutritionists, for instance, to make sure the gazelle doesn’t turn into a hippo. But Lincoln Park took a different approach when it hired Travis in August to study the impact of disease on conservation programs in zoos and in the wild.

“We thought with all the disease issues at zoos, the movement of animals from zoo to zoo, we need to look at the big picture, and nobody else was doing it,” said Dr. Robyn Barbiers, the zoo’s head veterinarian.

Experts at the American Zoo and Aquarium Assn. could not name another zoo in the country that has an epidemiologist on staff, including the world-famous San Diego Zoo and the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

With his stout build and easy laugh, Travis, 32, appears more like a favorite grade school teacher than a scientist who analyzes data about tuberculosis and West Nile virus, and plans strategies to reintroduce lemurs into the wild.

“My job represents kind of an evolution of zoos,” he said. “We understand a lot about individual medicine, and now we need to look at [zoo] population health.”

Travis’ job represents a shift in the way zoos see themselves and other zoos. That helps explain why Lincoln Park Zoo, with its 1,200 animals compared with 5,000 at the National Zoo, would be the place for a staff epidemiologist.

“Early on, zoos were just collections of curiosities,” said Ted Molter, spokesman for the San Diego Zoo. “The idea was to have a couple of animals represent the species, and if an animal expires you send a team to collect another one.”

But because of the cost of capturing and transporting animals from their native habitats thousands of miles away, and the zoos’ reluctance to take more animals from shrinking populations in the wild, zoos are now importing the vast majority of their animals from other zoos. Because of this, Travis said, zoos must worry not only about the health of their own animals but the health of animals arriving from other zoos.

Travis recently completed a nationwide survey of the incidence of tuberculosis among zoo hoof stock, which includes giraffes, antelope, horses and rhinoceroses.

But his attention is focused now on preparing, should the West Nile virus find Lincoln Park.

“The plan will consist of how we move birds and animals indoors, which creates a huge space issue, and what we do to protect them if they remain outside,” he said.

At the same time, he is working on decreasing the number of mosquitoes by finding and destroying their breeding grounds. He will share what he learns and how his plan works with other zoos if and when they face the threat of the virus.

Travis also has been asked to consult on a program to reintroduce the lemur to Madagascar.

“We look at the risks along the way,” he said. That means examining everything: the number of people who will come in contact with the animals on their journey back to the spot where they will be released, how close the animals will be placed to dog kennels in airports, whether workers handling the animals follow procedures such as wearing surgical masks.

The next step is to look at what could happen if the animals being released carry an infection that could contaminate the animals already in the wild.

Such a study could mean the difference between survival and extinction of a species, Lincoln Park Zoo spokeswoman Kelly McGrath said.

“If you only have a few in the world, you can’t fool around,” she said.

Travis’ work extends to animals that have never been in a zoo. He is helping create a plan to keep diseases such as measles and hepatitis from spreading from humans to mountain gorillas in Uganda and Rwanda, as well as developing a strategy for monitoring and containing endangered animals that are infected.

When asked what his work will become, he takes a visitor to a new laboratory where workers are examining blood and other samples sent from zoos nationwide.

The questions are already coming in, from zoos looking for answers about specific diseases and whether Travis can coordinate studies.

“That’s what this job is about,” he said. “That’s what we wanted to happen.”

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Lincoln Park Zoo: https://www.lpzoo.com

American Zoo and Aquarium Assn.:

https://www.aza.org