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Carol Uphoff Meteyer, DVM

Courtesy Associate Professor of Practice

Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences

Cornell K. Lisa Yang Center for Wildlife Health

Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine

Ithaca, NY 14853

Email: cum3@cornell.edu

Profile

Research/Clinical Interests

Dr. Meteyer specializes in the ecology and comparative pathophysiology of diseases in free-living wildlife populations. Her current work with the Cornell K. Lisa Yang Center for Wildlife Health expands on her collaboration with Cornell faculty in 2019, investigating the mortality of greater one-horned rhinos in Nepal’s Chitwan National Park and researching the critically endangered gharial crocodile.  Dr. Meteyer continues to study the host-pathogen relationship in white-nose syndrome, looking at the unique plant invasion strategies deployed by Pseudogymnoascus destructans during infection, and the innate immune response to this unusual pathogen in hibernating, and recently euthermic bats.

Education

  • Residency in Comparative Pathology, University of Southern California and Los Angeles County Medical and Veterinary Services, 1984-1988 
  • Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists, 1988
  • Internship in Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, West Los Angeles Veterinary Medical Group, Los Angeles, California, 1983-1984
  • Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Ames, Iowa, 1979-1983
  • Bachelor of Science (Biology, Chemistry), University of Iowa, Iowa City, 1971-1975

Biography/Professional Experience

  • Courtesy Associate Professor, Cornell Lisa K. Yang Center for Wildlife Health: 2025 -present
  • Emeritus Scientist, U.S. National Wildlife Health Center, 2019 – present
  • US Geological Survey (USGS) Headquarters, Science Advisor and Programming Division of Environmental Health (Top Secret - SCI security clearance), 2012 – 2019
    • President’s National Security Council interagency committees for policy development representing the Department of the Interior on Pandemic preparedness, Biological assessment & threat response, National Biosurveillance, Office of Science Technology Policy - foreign animal disease working group. 
  • Research Pathologist, USGS National Wildlife Health Center, 1992 – 2012
  • Lead Pathologist Forensic Investigations • U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Law Enforcement Pathologist • Criminal cases U.S. Department of Justice • National Resource Damage Assessment Cases: Legacy mining and organochlorine contaminants
  • Assistant Clinical Professor, University of California, Davis, 1987 – 1992
  • Comparative Pathology Resident, University of Southern California and Los Angeles County Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Services Laboratory, 1984 – 1987

During her 40-year career in wildlife pathology, Dr. Meteyer has defined novel diseases in birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles, which often provided the foundation for later management actions. 

  • Description of the nephrotoxic changes in Gyps vultures contributed to the discovery that the pharmaceutical agent, diclofenac, caused the population crash of Gyps vultures on the Indian subcontinent. 
  • Defined the pathology of white-nose syndrome in hibernating bats and the unique pattern of invasion of Pseudogymnoascus destructans as hemibiotrophy, an infection strategy previously only described in plant fungal pathogens. 
  • Research that sprung from the description of avian vacuolar myelinopathy in American eagles and American coots led to other researchers identifying a novel cyanobacterial toxin as the cause of the intramyelinic edema. 
  • Viral inclusions and tissue necrosis in multiple organs in salamanders redefined the disease ‘red-leg’ as an iridovirus infection, not due to bacteria. 
  • Her contributions toward defining protozoal encephalitis and fatal acanthocephaliasis in southern sea otters allowed others to further study the ecological significance of these diseases in the marine environment. 
  • Previous pathology work in domestic poultry helped with characterizing virulent neurotropic Newcastle disease virus as the cyclical cause of mortality in young cormorants and Mycoplasma gallisepticum conjunctivitis in finches.

Publications

Selected Publications

Meteyer, C. U., & Boyles, J. G. (2025). Fungal chimera: A lethal mammalian fungus with invasion strategies of plant pathogens. Virulence, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/21505594.2024.2439497

Meteyer, C. U., Dutheil, J. Y., Keel, M. K., Boyles, J. G., & Stukenbrock, E. H. (2022). Plant pathogens provide clues to the potential origin of bat white-nose syndrome Pseudogymnoascus destructans. Virulence, 13(1), 1020–1031. https://doi.org/10.1080/21505594.2022.2082139

Meteyer, C. U., Barber, D., & Mandl, J. N. (2012). Pathology in euthermic bats with white nose syndrome suggests a natural manifestation of immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome. Virulence, 3(7), 583–588. https://doi.org/10.4161/viru.22330

Meteyer, C. U., Buckles, E. L., Blehert, D. S., Hicks, A. C., Green, D. E., Shearn-Bochsler, V., Thomas, N. J., Gargas, A., & Behr, M. J. (2009). Histopathologic criteria to confirm white-nose syndrome in bats. Journal of veterinary diagnostic investigation : official publication of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, Inc, 21(4), 411–414. https://doi.org/10.1177/104063870902100401

Cryan, P. M., Meteyer, C. U., Boyles, J. G., & Blehert, D. S. (2010). Wing pathology of white-nose syndrome in bats suggests life-threatening disruption of physiology. BMC biology, 8, 135. https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7007-8-135

Oaks, J. L., Gilbert, M., Virani, M. Z., Watson, R. T., Meteyer, C. U., Rideout, B. A., Shivaprasad, H. L., Ahmed, S., Chaudhry, M. J., Arshad, M., Mahmood, S., Ali, A., & Khan, A. A. (2004). Diclofenac residues as the cause of vulture population decline in Pakistan. Nature, 427(6975), 630–633. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02317

Meteyer, C. U., Rideout, B. A., Gilbert, M., Shivaprasad, H. L., & Oaks, J. L. (2005). Pathology and proposed pathophysiology of diclofenac poisoning in free-living and experimentally exposed oriental white-backed vultures (Gyps bengalensis). Journal of wildlife diseases, 41(4), 707–716. https://doi.org/10.7589/0090-3558-41.4.707

Thomas, N. J., Meteyer, C. U., & Sileo, L. (1998). Epizootic vacuolar myelinopathy of the central nervous system of bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and American coots (Fulica americana). Veterinary pathology, 35(6), 479–487. https://doi.org/10.1177/030098589803500602

Meteyer, C. U., Docherty, D. E., Glaser, L. C., Franson, J. C., Senne, D. A., & Duncan, R. (1997). Diagnostic Findings in the 1992 Epornitic of Neurotropic Velogenic Newcastle Disease in Double-Crested Cormorants from the Upper Midwestern United States. Avian Diseases, 41(1), 171–180. https://doi.org/10.2307/1592457

Work, T., & Meteyer, C. (2014). To understand coral disease, look at coral cells. EcoHealth, 11(4), 610–618. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-014-0931-1

Meteyer, C. U., Dubielzig, R. R., Dein, F. J., Baeten, L. A., Moore, M. K., Jehl, J. R., Jr, & Wesenberg, K. (1997). Sodium toxicity and pathology associated with exposure of waterfowl to hypersaline playa lakes of southeast New Mexico. Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation, 9(3), 269–280. https://doi.org/10.1177/104063879700900308

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