Wildlife Futures Program

A Wildlife Health Program with the Pennsylvania Game Commission

At no time in history has disease posed more problems for wildlife and its conservation.

White-Nose Syndrome has killed 99 percent of most cave-bat species.
Chronic Wasting Disease continues to spread to new parts of Pennsylvania, infecting and killing deer and threatening hunting tradition.
West Nile virus has left Pennsylvania’s state bird, the ruffed grouse, with an uncertain future.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) and Penn Vet
have formed a partnership to address those problems head-on.

About the Wildlife Futures Program

The Wildlife Futures Program, formerly known as the Pennsylvania Wildlife Futures Program, is a science-based, wildlife health program that serves to increase disease surveillance, management, and research to better protect wildlife across the Commonwealth.

For hunters who submit samples from deer they harvest for chronic wasting disease (CWD) testing, the partnership will provide much faster turnaround for test results – about 10 to 21 days – as well as the ability to track test results online.

The Wildlife Futures Program will dedicate 12 employees, one of them working full-time out of the Game Commission’s Harrisburg headquarters, to addressing wildlife diseases. Benefits include:

The ability to better define wildlife diseases, their impacts, and how we can manage them
Freeing up agency biologists to spend more time focusing on managing wildlife populations
The coordination of disease responses across agencies, our hunting community, and the general public

Download our Wildlife Futures Program Overview (PDF).

Our Goals

Establish Research and Surveillance Programs

Establish state-wide, innovative research and surveillance programs to identify diseases with the potential to infect wildlife, livestock, poultry, companion animals, and humans.
Develop a Wildlife Health Information System

Develop and maintain a comprehensive wildlife health information system including a database of wildlife health cases, mapping, and data analysis to integrate real-time, state-wide disease response.
Facilitate Cross-Agency Communication

Facilitate cross-agency communication of existing and emerging wildlife disease, translate applied-research for science and technical publication, and build an external communications platform to ensure that timely information is available to the public.
Enhance Capacity through Training

Enhance technical and staff capacity through a comprehensive training and development program on disease surveillance, management, and animal health systems.

Our Team

Based out of Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center located in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, the Wildlife Futures Program is led by ecologist Dr. Julie Ellis, and veterinarian and toxicologist Dr. Lisa Murphy.

Julie Ellis, PhD

“The Wildlife Futures Program establishes a sustainable infrastructure for collaboration, and really represents a paradigm shift in managing wildlife disease. Not only are we charting a novel and comprehensive program that protects Pennsylvania wildlife, but ultimately, we are protecting the health of Pennsylvania’s nearly 13 million residents from the serious impacts of wildlife disease. Land use in Pennsylvania is changing, and wildlife species are coming into closer contact with humans. We need to be prepared for these broader consequences on both animal and human health.”

Learn more about Dr. Ellis...

Erica Miller, DVM

Erica Miller holds a BS in Zoology and a DVM from Oklahoma State University. She worked full-time as a wildlife rehabilitation veterinarian for 25 years and has been on staff at 3 veterinary schools (OkSU, NCSU & UPenn). She left wildlife rehabilitation in 2013 to explore some other areas of veterinary medicine, working part-time as a wildlife veterinarian for the New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife, the lead veterinarian at the Brandywine zoo, a laboratory aid in the NJ Rabies Lab, an editor on three book projects, and continuing her position as an adjunct associate professor in wildlife medicine at UPenn. She continues to volunteer at Mercer County Wildlife Center and Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research, providing opportunities for veterinary students to gain experience handling native wildlife. In 2019 she served as interim wildlife veterinarian for the Pennsylvania Game Commission and is looking forward to continued work with the PGC through the Wildlife Futures Program.

Learn more about Dr. Miller...

Scott Weber, VMD

Dr. Scott Weber is a graduate of Penn Vet, where he spent much of his time on wildlife-related research and studies. For postgraduate work, he received a Thouron Fellowship to study the immunology of tick-borne pathogens in wild and domestic ruminants at the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine.

Throughout his career, his clinical veterinary experiences have included working with a variety of injured wildlife; managing quarantine, AZA breeding recommendations, and veterinary health for endangered and rare animals; and having veterinary responsibility for thousands of captive zoo and aquarium species. In 2013 Scott was accepted as a prestigious AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow (STPF).

Learn more about Dr. Weber...

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