Funk’s Wildlife Disease Lab

04/28/2026

There's still time to sign up for this webinar focused on the prevention and management of infectious diseases in raccoons in wildlife rehabilitation! Tune in tomorrow at 5:30 PM CDT

We are very excited to be bringing this awesome talk to you on April 29th! Join us for a presentation by Will Funk, CWR "Management of Infectious Disease in Raccoons: Maximizing capacity while treating the individual"
Presentation to be held on Zoom and will be recorded for registered attendees
$10 NYSWRC Members with code MEMBERCOON
$15 Non Member
Sign up: https://www.nyswrc.org/virtualseminars

04/04/2026

Ask any raccoon rehabilitator and they'll say the same thing: neurologic disease in free ranging raccoons seems to be increasing, and it seems to be affect patients in care as well. My current research into retrospective records of neurologic clinical signs of raccoons admitted to a large rehabilitation center seems to be supporting that assessment, as neurologic clinical signs appear to be increasing while trauma and non-neurologic disease appear to be consistent. Understanding the diseases that affect these populations is essential to preventing them, particularly as many of these diseases have significant human and pet health implications.

03/27/2026

Any wildlife rehabbers/veterinary staff that want to learn about raccoon diseases and parasites, be sure to sign up!

We are so excited for this special virtual webinar on Managing Disease in Raccoons! Join us and presenter Will Funk, CWR on Wednesday, April 29th 6:30-8:30 PM! 🦝

Register at NYSWRC.org.
$10 NYSWRC Members with code MEMBERCOON
$15 Non Member

02/27/2026

Another year, another presentation (or 3)! Spending the week in Baton Rouge discussing raccoon health with rehabilitators at the .

11/03/2025

Carnivores are a regular admission to wildlife rehabilitation, and it can be hard to find release sites that want them. As such, they may be released quite far from where they were initially found. This map shows the distances that a subset of predators were translocated following rehabilitation.

Wildlife rehabilitation centers commonly relocate animals, particularly orphans, to areas outside of their initial home range. These translocations often place these animals in areas with optimal habitat, but there may be unintended impacts involved as well.

Just like human hospitals, wildlife rehabilitation centers can become a high-risk site of exposure to numerous disease-causing agents and releasing animals that are exposed to these diseases may introduce a novel disease to a population. While the impact of these risks is likely minimal in most instances, monitoring the extent of translocations occurring within a rehabilitation center can help minimize the risk even more.

08/04/2025

I had a great week in Victoria, BC at the 73rd Annual International Conference of the Wildlife Disease Association, where I presented the results of the parvovirus vaccine trial we ran last summer during the poster sessions as well as a presentation on the benefits of utilizing wildlife rehabbers in conservation research endeavors as a part of the . This conference was an excellent networking opportunity focused on collaborative efforts and a true mesh of wildlife biologists, veterinarians, and wildlife rehabbers alike. Can't wait for my next WDA Conference!

07/22/2025

We're moving forward with the next step of the raccoon parvovirus investigation: DNA extraction, replication, and sequencing from various tissues to evaluate the extent of the infection in vaccinated patients!

06/26/2025

Bats are a common vector for the spillover of zoonotic diseases, and their ectoparasites may play a key role in the transmission!

Bats and ectoparasites: exploring a hidden link in zoonotic disease transmission.
Bats are increasingly in the focus of disease surveillance studies as they harbor pathogens that can cause severe human disease. In other host groups, ectoparasitic arthropods play an important role in transmitting pathogens to humans. Nevertheless, we currently know little about the role of bat-associated ectoparasites in pathogen transmission, not only between bats but also to humans and other species, even though some of these parasites occasionally feed on humans and harbor potentially zoonotic organisms. In this work, we summarize current knowledge on the zoonotic risks linked to bat-associated ectoparasites and provide novel risk assessment guidelines to improve targeted surveillance efforts. Additionally, we suggest research directions to help adjust surveillance strategies and to better understand the eco-epidemiological role of these parasiteshttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S147149222400299X

06/16/2025

It's , and I've officially published my first manuscript! In this paper, we identified the adult helminth parasites infecting red kites in the United Kingdom based on morphology and genetic analysis, and is the first to assess gastrointestinal parasite prevalence in a large cohort of red kites. Additionally, we isolated a previously unsequenced portion of the cytochrome oxidase 1 gene in the Porrocaecum genus and uploaded it to GenBank.

04/25/2025

USGS HOSTS FIRST WILDLIFE HEALTH AWARENESS DAY, APRIL 25

Join the United States Geological Survey for its very first Wildlife Health Awareness Day, and a special one-hour showcase of USGS wildlife health science.

With its wildlife health work focused largely on the prevention and detection of disease in wild game species, fishes, and other wildlife, the USGS also plays an important role in disease outbreak responses for humans.

This event will feature presentations which explore the impact of the loss of sea stars on coastal environments, examine how plague is transforming ecosystems and delve into interventions for diseases that have significant ramifications for free-ranging wildlife health.

It promises to be the first of many celebrations which highlight the critical importance of wildlife in our world.

Join the conversation 2pm (EDT/UTC-4), April 25 at https://www.usgs.gov/mission-areas/ecosystems/news/usgs-wildlife-health-awareness-day

Image: Arctic fox by Ryan Askren courtesy of the US Geological Survey

03/19/2025

Did you know that parasites don't just infect the gastrointestinal tract of animals?

While this specimen, a larvae of the nematode called Crenosoma vulpis (or fox lungworm), was found in a f***l sample from a raccoon, the adults of these parasites spend their life in the bronchioles of the lungs of foxes, dogs, and other carnivores! The first-stage larvae of these parasites travel up the trachea, and are subsequently swallowed by the host. After passing through the GI tract and being excreted in f***s, the larvae must be eaten by a snail to mature into the second and third larval stages. When snails are eaten by a potential host, the 3rd stage larvae mature into adults, resetting the cycle. First stage larvae are able to be detected as soon as 19 days after initial consumption of an infected snail!

***l