Andrew Cunningham, BVMS, Ph.D.
Head of Wildlife Epidemiology, Institute of Zoology, United Kingdom

Email: Andrew.Cunningham@ioz.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)20 7449 6674
Fax: +44 (0)20 7586 1457

Dr. Cunningham joined the Institute of Zoology in 1988 as Veterinary Pathologist for the Zoological Society of London, carrying out diagnostic pathology on zoo and wild animal species. In 2001, he became Head of Wildlife Epidemiology at the IoZ, leading a team of researchers working on wildlife diseases with particular reference to biodiversity conservation on a wide range of animal taxa.

One of his main projects investigates catastrophic vulture declines in India with colleagues at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds , the Bombay Natural History Society , the Venkateshwara Hatcheries Poultry Diagnostic and Research Centre and the National Bird of Prey Centre . Much of this work has been funded by the RSPB and recently won a grant from the Darwin Initiative for the Survival of Species to further studies on this major ecological and socio-economic problem.

Dr. Cunningham has been chair of the pathology and diseases working group of the Declining Amphibian Populations Task Force (DAPTF) since 1997. In 1996, he was part of an international team that co-discovered the chytrid fungus now known to cause disease in amphibians. In 1997, he co-coordinated international efforts to further investigate the effects of this disease. This culminated in the finding that infection of the chytrid fungus (chytridiomycosis) is closely associated with global amphibian population declines. In 2000, he was co-awarded a CSIRO medal for this work. In collaboration with the U.K. charity Frog life , Dr. Cunningham is also investigating a new epidemic disease of frogs in Britain , ranavirus. Most likely introduced from North America , ranavirus causes systemic haemorrhages and/or skin ulcerations and eventually death in infected amphibians. Additional, active, wildlife research interests include infectious and non-infectious diseases of conservation significance, such as parasitic diseases of Polynesian tree snails and BSE-related diseases of zoo animals.

Research Interests:

• Disease threats to wildlife conservation
• Host-parasite interactions and co-evolution
• Wildlife disease and comparative pathology

Selected Publications

Daszak, P., Cunningham, A.A . & Hyatt, A.D. (2001) Anthropogenic Environmental Change and the Emergence of Infectious Diseases in Wildlife. Acta Tropica . 78, 103-116.

Daszak, P., Cunningham, A.A. & Hyatt, A.D. (2000) Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wildlife: Global Threats to Biodiversity and Human Health. Science . 287, 443-449.

Hyatt, A.D., Gould, A.R., Zupanovic, Z., Cunningham, A.A. , Hengstberger, S., Whittington, R.J., Coupar, B.E.H. (2000) Characterisation of piscine and amphibian iridoviruses. Archives of Virology . 145, 301-331.

Daszak, P., Berger, L., Cunningham, A.A. , Hyatt, A.D., Green, D.E. & Speare, R. (1999) Emerging Infectious Diseases and Amphibian Population Declines. Emerging Infectious Diseases . 5, 735-748.

Cunningham, A.A. & Daszak, P. (1998) Extinction of a species of land snail due to infection with a microsporidian parasite. Conservation Biology . 12, 1139-1141.

Berger, L., Speare, R., Daszak, P., Greene, D.E., Cunningham, A.A. , Goggin, C.L., Slocombe, R., Ragan, M.A., Hyatt, A.D., McDonald, K.R., Hines, H.B., Lips, K.R., Marantelli, G. & Parkes, H. (1998) Chytridiomycosis causes amphibian mortality associated with population declines in the rain forests of Australia and Central America. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . 95, 9031-9036.

Cunningham, A.A. , Langton, T.E.S., Bennett, P.M.B., Lewin, J.F., Drury, S.E.N., Gough, R.E. & Macgregor, S.K. (1996) Pathological and microbiological findings from incidents of unusual mortality of the common frog ( Rana temporaria ). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London : Biological Sciences . 351, 1539-1557.

Cunningham, A.A. (1996) Disease risks of wildlife translocations. Conservation Biology . 10, 349-353.

Kirkwood , J.K. & Cunningham , A.A. (1994). Epidemiological observations on spongiform encephalopathies in captive wild animals in the British Isles . Veterinary Record . 135, 296-303.

Cunningham, A.A. , Wells, G.A.H., Scott, A.C., Kirkwood , J.K. & Barnett, J.E.F. (1993). Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy in greater kudu ( Tragelaphus strepsiceros ). Veterinary Record . 132, 68.