Bats, ballyhoo, donkeys and stray dogs are just a few of the animals of St. Kitts and Nevis that benefit from research and community outreach.
Adtalem Global Education’s Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine (RUSVM) provides an immersive learning experience that benefits students and the domestic and wild animals of the Caribbean islands of St. Kitts and Nevis.
RUSVM has more than 450 animals on campus, and its veterinary teaching hospital is the first hospital outside of North America to be accredited by the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), providing students the opportunity to train in routine, diagnostic and emergency care for large and small animals.
The university also has an active research agenda with a One Health focus, as well as numerous student clubs that provide hands-on opportunities with animals through community outreach.
Here we explore a few of the many ways student and faculty research and community outreach benefit the animals of St. Kitts and Nevis.
Visiting Swine Farms
Pig farming on St. Kitts and Nevis is evolving, and students are there to help support famers and their animals. Through RUSVM’s chapter of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians, students visit farms to provide health checks and learn how to do deworming, ear tagging and iron injections.
Tracking Viruses in Bats
Bats are important pollinators on the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis, and wherever they are found. Tracking their health is vital to our own. Student Jessica Kulberg and faculty member Dr. Sarah Hooper recently published research on virus transmission in bats. It showed what they believe to be the first report on detection of herpesviruses from Antillean tree bats. To make this observation, they caught and released bats in mist nets on a road in the rainforest. Their findings will help track bat migrations between Caribbean islands and the potential spread of diseases.
Caring for Cattle
Members of the student chapter of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners work closely with local farmers to provide husbandry advice, pregnancy diagnoses, deworming and recordkeeping. RUSVM also donates and sells bull calves from its teaching herd to local famers to help with crossbreeding.
Helping a Herd of Donkeys
RUSVM is home to around 150 donkeys drawn from an overpopulation of animals on St. Kitts and Nevis. Students in the Donkey Club help to rehabilitate them from the wild, and they help students learn large animal skills before often being adopted by local farmers. The student club also makes donkeys available for community events such as meeting with neurodivergent children at Cotton Thomas Comprehensive School through the nonprofit Zakers Affinity Causes.
Read More: The Lasting Impact of Adtalem’s Donkey Herd
Creating Second Chances for Stray Dogs
In the Caribbean, dogs aren’t always welcome into homes as pets that are part of the family. That leads to population control issues. RUSVM takes in some of these dogs as teaching animals. When they aren’t part of classroom instruction, some go home with students for the weekend. Some are fully adopted by grads when their service to RUSVM is over.
Read More: Coconut Retrievers: Second Chances for Caribbean Stray Dogs
Using Parasites to Track Fish
From Massachusetts to Southern Brazil and the waters around St. Kitts and Nevis, you’ll find halfbeak ballyhoo swimming in schools near the shoreline. They are used as bait and food, making it important to track their numbers and migration as part of fisheries management. Faculty member Dr. Mark Freeman presented research he conducted with MSc by Research student Dr. Clara Camargo at a symposium in Mexico. Their research shows how parasites in a ballyhoo’s gallbladder can be used as biological tags for tracking them.
Follow RUSVM research on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Learn how Adtalem envisions a world with Health in Harmony for people, animals and the environment.
For more information, email the Adtalem Global Communications Team: adtalemmedia@adtalem.com.
