Gorilla Doctors

Mountain and Grauers gorilla veterinary care MGVP, Inc. staff is comprised of 11 veterinarians and several additional technical and administrative support staff. Our veterinarians perform routine health checks, veterinary monitoring visits and clinical interventions to treat ill and injured human-habituated mountain and Grauers gorillas living in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Gorilla rescue MGVP, Inc. also assists wildlife authorities with provision of emergency care to infant gorillas and other primates confiscated from poachers, and manages the health of orphaned mountain gorillas in captivity.Research and surveillance The organization maintains a comprehensive database on gorilla health, and conducts wildlife health surveillance and research on eastern gorillas and sympatric wildlife and emerging infectious diseases at the gorilla/human interface.

Emerging wildlife zoonotic pathogen surveillance - MGVP is a subrecipient on a usaid grant to the university of California, davis for implementation of the emerging pandemic threats (predict) project, the objectives of predict are to detect and describe viruses in wildlife, primarily primates, bats and rodents, that have the potential to infect people, and to better understand the ecological and behavioral drivers of spillover of viruses from wildlife to people. MGVP, Inc. implements predict in rwanda, uganda and eastern democratic republic of congo. Our veterinians capture live wildlife to obtain samples and work with laboratory partners to screen samples for viruses. MGVP, Inc. is also a recipient of us fish and wildlife service funding to study parasites causing gastrointestinal disease in mountain gorillas in rwanda, and a us embassy rwanda grant to improve hygiene infrastructure and practices around volcanoes national park, rwanda.