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.
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