In the Galápagos Islands, the birthplace of the theory of evolution by natural selection, human-caused pressures threaten to throw finely tuned ecosystems off-balance. Major threats to endangered wildlife in the Galápagos include emerging diseases, directly through the introduction of non-native animals and indirectly because of a changing climate. This includes canine distemper virus from dogs that are illegally present on multiple islands. By better understanding disease threats facing endangered species, the National Park Directorate can maximize the impact of conservation management strategies in the Galápagos. The Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), a Cornell Global Hub partner, has built a new wildlife postmortem facility in the Galápagos Islands to spearhead this effort; however, with permit limitations on sample movement to mainland Ecuador, the current diagnostic capability is limited to gross postmortem examination. Furthermore, there are no formally trained veterinary pathologists in Ecuador, limiting interpretation of lesions and thus the conservation impact of this laboratory.

To maximize the potential of this new wildlife disease laboratory at this critical time, we propose the establishment of a histopathology laboratory in the Galápagos facility and postmortem training from Cornell pathologists, allowing for more advanced diagnostic capabilities. This new capacity will allow USFQ and our pathologists to understand the most important diseases threatening key endangered species during and beyond this project timeline. This project also facilitates collaborations between USFQ and the local government and National Park Directorate to help mitigate the impact of disease on the endangered wildlife of the Galápagos through management strategies that are informed by these mortality investigations. This project also invests in the future of wildlife pathology in Ecuador by facilitating information exchange between USFQ and the pathology faculty at Cornell as well as in-person trainings in the Galápagos Islands and in Quito.