Richard Kock
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The postholder is working to establish and promote a One Health and conservation medicine programme including, research on emerging disease systems arising from pathogen flow between wildlife, livestock and humans. The geographical focus is Africa and South Asia and will involve working with regional and international partners. Capacity building is seen as central to achieving these goals and will include module development in professional training in UK and abroad working with partners and providing leadership in RVC teaching and post graduate programmes in wildlfie health and biology.
Biography
Richard Kock is a dedicated wildlife veterinarian and conservationist. From 1983 to 2010 he was attached to the Zoological Society of London (ZSL); working in zoological medicine from 1983-1990 in the UK, then seconded abroad from 1991 to 2006. He worked on free-ranging wildlife health with the national wildlife management authority (Kenya Wildlife Service KWS) in Nairobi 1991-1998 to start a new Veterinary Department. This initiative is now a model in the region with 72 permanent staff. Throughout this time he was involved in research, management and conservation initiatives in the region and built networks and wildlife health capacity. From 1999 – 2005 he was seconded to a regional body, African Union Inter African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) to work on rinderpest and other transboundary animal diseases at the wildlife, livestock and human interface. This involved the organisation and implementation of epidemiological research (sero-surveillance and outbreak investigation) in wildlife species throughout eastern, central and western Africa based out of Nairobi. In 2001, he detected and ensured diagnosis of the last globally known epidemic of rinderpest, which occured in wild buffalo in Meru National Park, Kenya. He also worked on a range of other infectious diseases including Pestes des Petits Ruminants, Rift Valley Fever, anthrax and other wildlife diseases. He returned to the UK in 2006 and worked until 2010 as a Programme Manager at ZSL, running regional conservation projects in deserts and rangelands in Africa, Middle East and Asia with a wildlife health perspective. this included overall responsibility for management of the King Khalid Wildlife Research Centre near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 2011 he took up a chair in Wildlife Health and Emerging Diseases at the Pathology and Infectious Diseases Department, Royal Veterinary College, Hawkshead Campus, London, UK. He has been engaged closely with the evolving One Health initiative and in promoting wildlife and environment in the health agenda. He is an adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University, Grafton USA and co-chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission Wildlife Health Specialist Group.
Research
Research interests over 30 years of working with wildife include;
- use of novel anaesthetic agents in wild carnivores and herbivores, improving protocols and intervention technologies to enable safer capture, restraint and handling for treatment, biological sampling for diagnosis, translocation and reintroduction;
- developing efficient and cost effective wildlife epidemiological investigation protocols for infectious disease surveillance and outbreak investigation; and disease risk assessment in a range of wildlife species and at the wildlife and livestock interface;
- morbilliviruses, bacterial and protozoal infection of wildife - studying the epidemology of pathogens in various wild herbivore species and their role as potential reservoirs, vectors, indicators for and victims of infection amongst humans, domestic and wild animals;
- finding a balance between natural resource conservation, human, livestock and agricultural development in Africa and Asia to ensure sustained ecosystem services and ecological resilience through conserving healthy biodiversity and sustainable human livelihoods. Working on proof of One Health concept studies particularly at the remote, rural landscape level of developing and post-conflict communitieis.
Teaching
Extensive ad hoc lecturing and experiential training in the African and Asian contexts, lecturing on the RVC/ZSL Master course on sustainable use of wildlife, anaesthesia of pachyderms, epidemiology of infection in wild artiodactyls, lectures on African conservation and on the trends of widlife in the African and Asian landscapes at Imperial College Conservation Science Masters course.
Currently developing novel One Health training modules and courses (Wildlife Investigation Livestock and Human Health WILD) for African and Asian veterinary, medical and widllife professionals working with regional and international bodies including CDC, FAO EMPRES, AU IBAR and Tufts University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. Working with London International Development Centre and London School of Hygeine and Tropical Medicine in developing a new One health Masters to be run jointly with Royal Veterinary College.
Contributing to BVM at RVC in the area of Preventive medicine in wildilfe health.
Clinical
Extensive experience in clinical zoological and widllife medicine but currently not undertaking any clinical duties.
Selected Publications
KOCK R.A. (2006) Rinderpest and wildlife. In: Rinderpest and Peste des Petits Ruminants Virus. Plagues of large and small ruminants. Edited by Thomas Barrett, Paul-Pierre Pastoret, and William Taylor Biology of Animal Infections Elsevier publications Academic Press, London. Chap. 7 pp. 144-162
KOCK R.A. H. M. WAMWAYI, P. B. ROSSITER, G. LIBEAU, E. WAMBWA, J. OKORI, F. S. SHIFERAW, T. D. MLENGEYA (2006). Rinderpest in East Africa: continuing re-infection of wildlife populations on the periphery of the Somali ecosystem. Prev. Vet. Med Vol 75/1-2 pp. 63-80.
KOCK R.A. SOORAE P.S. AND MOHAMMED O.B. (2007) The Role of Veterinarians in Re-introductions International Zoo Year Book 41: 24–37
CLEAVELAND, S., PACKER, C., HAMPSON, K., KAARE, M., KOCK, R., MLENGEYA R.,LEMBO, T., CRAFT M. AND DOBSON, A. (2007) The multiple roles of infectious diseases in the Serengeti ecosystem. In: Serengeti III (Eds. Sinclair, A.R.E and Packer, C.), Chicago University Press, Chicago.
MUNSON, L., TERIO, K., KOCK, R., MLENGEYA, T., ROELKE, M., DUBOVI, E., SUMMERS, B., SINCLAIR, T., PACKER, C. (2008) Climate Extremes Promote Fatal Co-Infections during Canine Distemper Epidemics in African Lions. PLOS One Biology June 2008 , Volume 3, Issue 6, e2545.
BRONSVOORT B.M.DEC., PARIDA S., HANDEL I, MCFARLAND S., FLEMING L., HAMBLIN P., AND KOCK R. (2008) Serological survey for foot-and-mouth disease in wildlife in East Africa and parameter estimation of the Cedi test NSP ELISA for buffalo Clinical and Vaccine Immunology Vol. 15, No. 6.
OKITA-OUMA, B., AMIN, R., KOCK, R.A. (2007) Conservation and Management Strategy for the Black Rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis michaeli) and Management Guidelines for the White Rhino (Ceratotherium simum simum) in Kenya (2007-2011) KWS Nairobi Kenya
EMSLIE, R., Amin R., Kock R.A. (Eds) (2009) Guidelines for the in situ Re-introduction and Translocation of African and Asian Rhino for Conservation Purposes Species Survival Commission, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.
Du TOIT, J. T., KOCK, R.A. and DEUTSCH, J.C. (2009) (Editors) Wild Rangelands –Conserving Wildlife While Maintaining livestock in Semi Arid ecosystems Wiley Blackwell Oxford UK. KOCK, R.A., WOODFORD, M.H. and ROSSITER, P.B. (2010) Disease risks associated with translocation of wildlife OIE Revue Scientifique et Technique Rev.sci.tech.Off.int.Epiz., 29(2), 329-350
KOCK, R.A. (2010) The newly proposed Laikipia disease control fence in Kenya. In: Ferguson, K. & Hanks, J. eds. Fencing Impacts: A review of the environmental, social and economic impacts of game and veterinary fencing in Africa with particular reference to the Great Limpopo and Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Areas. Pretoria Mammal Research Institute 71-75
MOHAMMED, O. B., OMER, S. A., MACASERO, W. V. & KOCK, R. A. (2011) Serum biochemistry reference range values for Arabian mountain gazelle (Gazella gazella) and Arabian sand gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa marica) at King Khalid Wildlife Research Centre, Saudi Arabia Comp Clin Pathol (2011) 20:187–191
Outreach Activities
Co-chair of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources Species Survival Commissions Wildilfe Health Specialist Group. A professional voluntary expert network focused on wildlife health in relation to the conservation of biodiversity. This group is mandated under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and IUCN to promote wildife and wildlife health aspects of the Global One Health Initiative currently partnered by UN FAO, WHO and OIE.
Currently working jointly with IUCN colleagues on a wildlife disease risk assessment tool.