Veterinary Department

The basic activity of a veterinarian working in a zoological park is very different from that carried out by pet veterinarians because it requires a different approach to each animal. Besides the treatment of occasional conditions, the two veterinarians at Parco Natura Viva take care of the animals' welfare, cooperating with keepers and researchers. The vet team's job is to keep the Zoo's collection of animals as healthy as possible and, together with keepers and scientists, optimise their welfare. Among their tasks, they carry out a preventative health care programme, and they help with nutrition and advise on the design of enclosures, which are being more and more adapted to the animals needs. As veterinarians manage the welfare of social groups, they control the sex-ratio of the group in order to manage conflicts arising amongst them, thus it's important to move animals across zoos in order to ensure high genetic variability. Veterinarians work closely with the European coordinators (people chosen to manage the zoological European collection for each endangered species) and collaborate with the socio-sanitary local agency (ASL) and the forest rangers of the CITES (Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species).

Relationships between ASL, Universities and Zoo prophylactic Institutes facilitate the prevention and control of zoonosis and other animal diseases. Thanks to new techniques and even less invasive ones such as the training techniques, Parco Natura Viva's veterinarians can anesthetized individual animals, after having isolated them in a familiar area, thus avoiding stress to the animal and to the group. Training techniques also enable veterinarians to pharmacologically treat the animals without capturing them, in collaboration with researchers and keepers.

Parco Natura Viva gives a great opportunity for students to complete their studies; they have the chance to work with Parco Natura Viva staff and share daily tasks, on a cooperation basis with several Universities.
The veterinarian staff, in cooperation with researchers, contribute to new enclosures design, with the help of published scientific information and in keeping with other European Institutions.
Besides taking care of our zoological collection in a professional way, veterinarians conduct scientific research in order to acquire new knowledge in Veterinary Medicine.