Jim Wellehan,

Jim is a Tenured Professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Florida. He is a diplomate of both the American College of Zoological Medicine and the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists. He can generally be found in the zoo ward fixing owls and tortoises, and prattling on about dinosaurs, microbial ecology, and phylogenetic trees. He is the veterinarian of record for Santa Fe Teaching Zoo and Lubee Bat Conservancy. In addition to clinical work with the Zoological Medicine Service, he is also faculty in the UF Veterinary Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, and co-director of the Zoological Medicine Laboratory. His research interests focus on evolution and ecology of pathogens of nondomestic animals, with an emphasis on molecular diagnostics and pathogen discovery. He has published 237 peer-reviewed publications and 40 book chapters/invited reviews. Outside of work, he enjoys backpacking, mountain biking, and playing anything with strings and frets. He is happily married to Karen Schaedel and they are the proud parents of Xavier and Elseya. He would like to leave them a world that is working to mitigate the ongoing climate change crisis, and recognizes when the ultra-rich who have created the economic disparity and lack of social mobility destroying our society try to distract us by blaming it on minorities without the power to do so.

Jim’s clinical interests include infectious diseases, avian orthopedics, viral oncology, and native wildlife.

Jim’s research interests include comparative infectious disease, pathogen evolution, molecular diagnostics, and pathogen discovery. His favorite publication so far is:

Hyndman TH, Shilton CM Stenglein MD, Wellehan JFX. Divergent bornaviruses from Australian carpet pythons with neurological disease date the origin of extant Bornaviridae prior to the end-Cretaceous extinction. PLOS Pathogens. 2018 Feb 20;14(2):e1006881.

You should go read that one.