During a recent visit to Madagascar I was shown the new small animal clinic at the University of Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. Dr. Ando Miharifetra is tasked with the development of the clinic at the main campus of the School of Veterinary Medicine. He has written that this is the first veterinary clinic for the training of students in Madagascar. I was impressed with the design of the clinic as well as the aims and hopes of the faculty who showed me around.
Dr. Ando is seeking an experienced small animal clinician to take on both teaching and clinical responsibilities. Madagascar has three official languages, Malagasy, French, and English. The applicant should either be fluent in or have a working knowledge of French.
Anyone interested in the position or able to help with donations can e-mail him directly — contact information follows.
The stated objectives of the clinic are
to ensure proper practice of veterinary medicine, including consultations, care, and surgeries;
interpretation of laboratory data;
initial and continuing training for veterinary students; and
capacity building of practicing veterinarians.
Target species are
dogs and cats;
exotic pets including guinea pigs and chameleons; and
wild animals such as lemurs, tortoises, and birds.
The creation of a special unit for wild animals such as lemurs, tortoises, and birds is one of the priorities to protect the unique biodiversity in Madagascar. The school is actively engaged in community projects that include a spay-neuter program in rural areas that is linked with a rabies vaccination program and there is a chicken vaccination program to protect against Newcastle disease.
The chicken vaccination program was developed as a conservation effort by Dr. Christopher Golden of Harvard University, who was joined by Drs. Graham Crawford and Susan Ostapak of the San Francisco Zoo and other experts from around the world. Dr. Ando now heads the in-country program.
Details of how the unlikely combination of chicken vaccination and lemur conservation evolved can be found on line at wildlifehealthnet.org. The first link on the site, titled Improving Chicken Health To Promote Livelihoods And Decrease Bushmeat Hunting In Madagascar tells the story. This account provides blog links to the way in which the program impacts rural communities and the conservation of endangered lemurs. An embedded YouTube video in the third one gives an insight to village life and the vaccination work.
To learn more details about what is still needed to bring the clinic up to modern standards of animal care please contact Dr. Ando at miharifetrando@gmail.com Tel: 1261 34 06 405 98.
Figure 1.
The new clinic with its spectacular curved design. Exam room, surgery suites, and labs are all accessible from the outside corridor.
Figure 2.
Second year students in front of the new clinic.
Figure 3.
Established lecture rooms and student labs beside the clinic.
Figure 4.
One of the rooms inside the clinic.
Footnotes
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