MEMO: to Each Member and Affiliate Member of The Foundation

I am taking this means of introducing each of the 1850+ members of The Foundation to THE ZOO & WILDLIFE PATHOLOGY PROGRAM.

The brochure from which these pages were derived was developed by the zoological Consortium of your foundation [Dr. Tracey S. McNamara, The Wildlife Conservation Society, Chairperson]. The editors for the project were Dr. Richard Montali, National Zoological Park-Smithsonian Institution and Dr. Linda Munson, Dept. Of Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Univ. Of Tennessee. The artwork, composition and printing was carried out for your foundation by The University of Tennessee. Please take a few minutes to peruse their efforts on behalf of your foundation.

THE ZOO & WILDLIFE PATHOLOGY PROGRAM was initiated by your Foundation slightly over two years ago. One of the main objectives of the program is to train, on a full-time basis, a cadre of veterinarians and provide them with expertise in the pathology and diagnosis of the diseases of zoo and wildlife animals, so they may be better prepared to help us in the preservation of endangered species. We are told that a species of animal life becomes extinct in this world every 20 minutes...so we do not have any time to waste. We have the applicants for this training, and we have several training sites and preceptors. Your foundation is now trying to raise the necessary funds to sponsor such training. It costs approximately $50,000 per annum to sustain a single training position...for funding the medical care, lodging, food, travel, and stipend for each veterinarian who agrees to undertake this training.

There are numerous aspects of the program which are not detailed in the brochure, and for which your foundation must also raise the necessary funding. With the cooperation of the Department of Veterinary Pantology of The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), your foundation has established a Home Page on the World Wide Web (WWW). Dr. Bruce Williams, of the AFIP serves as the editor of the Home Page. With the contribution of the labor of members of your foundation's Faculty of discussants, we already have text on the diseases of zoo animals, wildlife, subhuman primates, fish and marine mammals available on the Home Page. This educational material can be printed out or downloaded by any interested individual in the world who has access to the WWW. More education material on these subjects will be added to the Home Page as The Zoo & Wildlife Pathology Program, of your foundation, progresses...watch for it!

The Registry of Study Materials of your foundation has established self-study centers. Each center has a well catalogued and documented collection of microslides, kodachromes, and videotutorials from over 3000 cases. Each center, includes within its collection a good representation of cases from zoo animals, wildlife, fish and marine mammals. Any veterinarian, biologist, zoologist, etc., is eligible, at their own expense, to visit and use the materials within these centers at the site...microscopes, projectors, and VCRs are available. The centers are located at the Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, New York; the Dept. Of Veterinary Pathology, AFIP, Washington, DC; the Biologic Resources Laboratory, University of Illinois, Chicago, Il; the Center for comparative Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX; the Pathology Laboratory, San Diego ,CA...come check them out! More case material on zoo animals, wildlife, fish and marine mammals will be added to the repositories of these centers as The Zoo & Wildlife Pathology Program, progresses.

The Training Aids division of your foundation, in cosponsorship with the Department of Veterinary Pathology of the AFIP, is currently developing two series of 10 one-hour videotutorials: (1) on the pathology of the diseases of zoo animals and wild; and (2) on the pathology of the diseases of fish and marine mammals. These will be recorded by members of the Faculty of Discussants of your foundation in a video studio at the AFIP. One set of each series of videotutorials will be given to the faculty of veterinary pathology of each veterinary school in the world as part of the WORLDWIDE CURRICULUM ENHANCEMENT PROGRAM of your foundation. This project of The Zoo & Wildlife Pathology Program will require a total of $45,000...it will reach 20,000 undergraduate veterinary students per year. The videotutorials will also be available to the zoos and aquaria of the world and the membership of your foundation under the same conditions as our other videotutorials.

The Registry of Study Materials and Training Aids Division of your foundation, in cosponsorship with the Department of Veterinary Pathology of the AFIP; the Registry of Veterinary Pathology at the AFIP, and the Registry of Comparative Pathology at the AFIP are currently developing a series of CD-ROM fascicles on the diseases of zoo animals, exotic birds, wildlife, fish and marine mammals. A copy of each CD-ROM fascicle will be given to the faculty of veterinary pathology of each veterinary school in the world as part of our WORLDWIDE CURRICULUM ENHANCEMENT PROGRAM. The fascicles contain high-quality photographs of gross and microscopic pathologic lesions of a variety of animal species. Your foundation must raise approximately $7,500 to fund the technical development of each master copy of the a CD-ROM fascicle. The CD-ROM fascicles will also be available to zoos and aquaria of the world and the membership of your foundation under the same conditions as our other publications.

The same group of cosponsors plan are currently preparing sets of microslides depicting various lesions in zoo animals. Exotic birds, wildlife, fish and marine mammals, with appropriate clinical data, and pathology reports. The will be prepared by your foundation's official histology laboratory. One of each set will also be given to the faculty of pathology of each veterinary school in the world as part of our WORLDWIDE CURRICULUM ENHANCEMENT PROGRAM. Sets will also be given to the bonafide pathology laboratories of zoos and aquaria throughout the world...unfortunately, there are few of them in existence.

Your foundation also offers, on a periodic basis, symposia devoted to the pathology of the diseases of zoo animals, wildlife, fish and marine mammals. We presented a symposium at Woods Hole, Massachusetts on the diseases of fish in 1991; on the diseases of wildlife at Virginia Tech in 1994 and also in 1995 on the diseases of zoo animals at Loyola University-Chicago. It costs approximately $10,000 to present such symposia. These were not well attended because we had to charge registration fees to cover expenses. We would prefer to present such symposia on an invitational, registration-free, basis for undergraduate and graduate students and interested zoo veterinarians, biologists and zoologists. Your foundation proposes to do this as part of THE ZOO & WILDLIFE PATHOLOGY PROGRAM, if we can raise the necessary contributions.

What can you do to help? We have already approached corporations with vested interests in the environment, such as EXXON, SEA WORLD, BUSCH GARDENS, andDUCKS UNLIMITED, unfortunately with no success. This program appears to be something we must do ourselves. If you have not yet paid your dues to your foundation, it would help if you would do so without delay...you can dedicate the payment to support of any one or more of the projects within THE ZOO & WILDLIFE PATHOLOGY PROGRAM.

Additionally, contributions by any of the Membership of The Foundation would be welcome...let us know which of the projects within THE ZOO & WILDLIFE PATHOLOGY PROGRAM you wish to support during 1996.

More especially, we urge of each of you to become part of the fund raising effort for this worldwide program by informing your colleagues and/or acquitances of the program and its projects and requesting their monetary support. Likely candidates are your employer, particularly those with matching funds programs; your social clubs; professional societies; manufacturers of animal feeds or equipment; meat packing plants; fisheries; local beverage companies; and others that your own fertile mind will call to light. Remember, for every 20 minutes that we procrastinate, another animal species is lost for eternity.

Your foundation can accept contributions in the form of checks or money orders made out to C.L. DAVIS FDN. All contributions by US citizens or residents are tax-deductible. We can also accept contributions made with a VISA, MASTER CARD, DISCOVER, NOVUS or AMERICAN EXPRESS credit card. You may donate in any number of ways. Send the card number and expiration date of any of cards listed above...by phone (1-847-367-4359); FAX(1-847-247-1869); mail (6245 Formoor Lane, Gurnee, IL 60031-4757); E-MAIL (CLDavis@1x.netcom.com) or through the Home Page of your foundation on the WWW (http://vetpathl.afip.mil/CLDavis.htm).

Sincerely,

Samuel W. Thompson, D.V.M.
Chief Executive Officer
Charles Louis Davis Foundation for th Advancement of Veterinary Pathology