As the plight of floridas manatee population continues, the florida fish and wildlife conservation commission (FWC) is leading plans throughout the state to provide additional critical care-capable…

As the plight of floridas manatee population continues, the florida fish and wildlife conservation commission (FWC) is leading plans throughout the state to provide additional critical care-capable facilities to support the ongoing need to rescue and rehabilitate these animals. There are currently only 3 active manatee critical care facilities in the state of florida, including our david a. Straz, JR. Manatee critical care center (center), where we have already received a record number of manatees this year (19 as of 3 23 2023), surpassing the total number of manatees we received in 2022 (17). We have 21 manatees in critical or rehabilitative care as of the date of this application. In support of fwcs initiative to increase capacity for manatee critical care, and with funding from the state through FWC, we will be constructing 2 additional critical care pools by may 2024, bringing our total number of critical care pools to 5.in order to function as a manatee critical care rehabilitation center, every facility is required to have certified manatee critical care veterinarians on staff. USFWS certifies eligible veterinarians after documenting training and proficiency in manatee critical care medicine. Typically, veterinarians develop this proficiency through on-site experience and training directed by active manatee critical care veterinarians. Currently, there are only 8 certified veterinarians practicing at the 3 existing critical care facilities. In order to grow the capacity for manatee critical care within the manatee rescue and rehabilitation partnership (MRP), the self-governing network of public agencies and private organizations on which FWC relies for assistance with rescuing, rehabilitating, releasing and monitoring florida manatees, additional certified manatee critical care veterinarians are needed. We propose with this 2-year project to develop a formalized plan for training prospective manatee critical care veterinarians, and to utilize that plan to prepare one veterinarian for USFWS certification during the grant period through a new manatee critical care veterinary fellowship program at zootampa. The training guidelines we develop, which will integrate and supplement the USFWS certification criteria, will be available to all manatee critical care facilities, and the veterinary fellow will be available to support another facility upon completion of their training and certification. The veterinary fellowship we propose will result in formalized manatee critical care training guidelines, based on USFWS certification criteria, which will be supplemented with additional training and experience with the remainder of our animal population, including terrestrial and other aquatic species. Working with DR. NAU and DR. Stringfield in the general animal population will allow the fellow to further hone comparative clinical skills and confidence, which will ultimately benefit the veterinary care of manatees. We are requesting support for the personnel costs to develop a formal training program for manatee critical care veterinarians, including salary, fringe benefits, and a professional stipend. We will provide an approximate 30 match through the personnel costs for the project principal investigator, DR. Melissa NAU, and project CO-investigator, DR. Cynthia stringfield. DR. NAU will develop the formal training guidelines and primarily supervise the veterinary fellow with DR. Stringfield supporting.