Tierra Smiley Evans

I am a veterinary epidemiologist at the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center (WHC) at the University of California, Davis. My research is focused on novel methods for non-invasive wildlife health diagnostics. I have developed several techniques for non-invasive viral surveillance in wildlife including a technique to recover herpesviruses from discarded chewed plants. I molecularly described the first beta and gamma herpesviruses detected in mountain gorillas and used discarded chewed plants to show the epidemiologic similarities between mountain gorilla and human herpesvirus transmission. I have experience leading wildlife health projects in Rwanda, Uganda, Nepal and Myanmar and now lead the WHC’s collaborative project with the government of Myanmar and the National Institutes of Health, investigating viral sharing between humans and wildlife in elephant logging camps in Myanmar.

July 2018