July 28, 2009 - Orangutan Outreach.  Crisis care and improved husbandry standards at orangutan rehabilitation centers in Borneo and Sumatra will be the focus when more than 35 local veterinarians, keepers and wildlife officials gather for the Orangutan Conservancy (OC) Veterinary Workshop, which will be held August 5-9 in East Kalimantan, Borneo.

The workshop is designed to specifically target the Indonesian and Malay staff members that work with orphaned orangutans on a daily basis. More than 1,500 orangutans currently reside at sanctuaries in Borneo and Sumatra, many bearing critical injuries and illnesses as a result of their capture from the forest. 

The OC Veterinary Workshop is sponsored by the Orangutan Conservancy, a U.S.-based organization that supports a variety of orangutan field projects, along with the Chester Zoo, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and the Birmingham (Alabama) Chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keepers (AAZK).

The OC Veterinary Workshop will be led by Chester Zoo veterinarian Steve Unwin, who believes that creating alliances between local staff members in southeast Asia is as important as seminars on disease risk-analysis or nutrition.

"For the first time ever, Indonesian and Malaysian wildlife vets working with orangutans will be brought together in an atmosphere of partnership, to learn from international experts and more importantly, each other," Unwin said. "This is the first step to working as a team to provide the best possible coordinated healthcare to the orangutan conservation efforts currently being undertaken."

 Among the agenda items are presentations on tuberculosis, hepatitis, parasitology, blood-typing, and discussions on the healthcare requirements associated with the reintroduction of orangutans back into the wild. 

The OC Veterinary Workshop will be staged at the Samboja Lestari rehabilitation center, and will include delegates from each of the other rehabilitation centers in Indonesia and Malaysia. Local universities and regional and national wildlife authorities will also attend.

The Orangutan Conservancy is planning to make the Veterinary Workshop an annual event, and hopes it will foster a crisis-care community that will ultimately benefit the orphaned orangutans.

 "Many veterinarians and orangutan-care workers spend years in the field, isolated from valuable social networks," said Dr. Raffaella Commitante, vice-president of OC. "Sharing information across sites and continents is key to managing the many orangutans that have been disenfranchised because of capture for the pet trade and forest destruction.  It is our hope that through this workshop, relationships and alliances will be built and maintained over the years to come providing everyone with much needed updates on health and management issues both in situ and out." 

The Orangutan Conservancy was established in 1999 to support projects that focus on wild orangutan protection; reintroduction; education; and research. The Orangutan Conservancy is a partner of the Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP).  

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