Rev. sci. tech. Off. int. Epiz., 2009, 28 (2), 597-603 Essential veterinary education in conservation medicine and ecosystem health: a global perspective A.A. Aguirre (1) & A. Gómez (2) (1) Conservation Medicine Programme, Wildlife Trust, 460 West 34th Street 17th Floor, New York, New York 10001, United States of America (2) Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th St., New York, New York 10024, United States of America Summary Conservation medicine is an emerging discipline that links human and animal health with ecosystem health and global environmental change. The biosphere is threatened by several pervasive and synergistic phenomena that are the result of increasing human pressures on the planet: climate change, biological impoverishment (loss of biodiversity and ecological processes), emerging infectious diseases (‘pathogen pollution’) and global ‘toxification’ (pollutants such as endocrine-disrupting chemicals). These factors are working in concert to diminish human, domestic animal, wildlife and environmental health on this planet. By including conservation medicine and ecosystem health into veterinary curricula worldwide we can train young veterinarians that will help change paradigms and be able to form transdisciplinary teams. These veterinary professionals will develop new tools for assessing and monitoring ecological health and will be prepared to fulfil critical roles in sustaining global ecological health. Keywords Conservation medicine – Ecosystem health – Sentinel species. Introduction In recent years, the term ‘conservation medicine’ has been used in various contexts by different scientific communities, research groups and national and international organisations. This novel approach to the protection of biological diversity challenges scientists and practitioners in the health, natural and social sciences to think about new, collaborative and transdisciplinary ways of addressing ecological health concerns in the current biodiversity crisis. Conservation medicine strives to understand health in an ecological context (identifying the environmental determinants of health) and use that understanding to develop preventive or corrective approaches and to maintain the health of all species in a sustainable fashion. Here, the authors briefly review the concepts of ecosystem health and conservation medicine and suggest ways to incorporate them into current and future veterinary curricula at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Health and global environmental change Large-scale anthropogenic habitat alteration and biodiversity loss have led to ecosystem disruptions that include, among other impacts, the modification of disease transmission patterns, the accumulation of toxic pollutants, and the introduction of alien species and pathogens. As the natural resilience of ecosystems is reduced and ecological barriers to disease transmission are weakened or eliminated, we will see the emergence and