milton friend

germtales...

Milton Friend

A Half Century in Wildlife Biology

Introduction

The first time I met Milton Friend, we took a walk together through the small prairie restoration in front the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin, the lab he helped found three decades ago and directed for 23 years. Milt, as he prefers to be called, seemed at first to be the very picture of the quiet, meticulous scientist. But as he recited a litany of wildlife die-offs, from an outbreak of Duck Plague in 1973 that killed tens of thousands of birds and led to the founding of the NWHC, to Mad Deer, a scary new prion disease then sending Wisconsin’s hunters into a mad panic, his eyes flashed with passion and anger: “Disease is an outcome.” Die-offs like these were anything but natural, he explained, drawing a parallel to the emergence of several new human diseases in the last few decades. Most of these new human plagues – Ebola, Lyme disease, SARS, bird flu, Nipah virus – are zoonotic, meaning they affect species beyond our own.

Disease is an outcome of many things, most of which point back to us:
Habitat loss. Urban sprawl. Climate change. Over hunting. A decline in hunting. Pollution. Factory farms. Trade. Travel. And the introduction – intended or otherwise -- of exotic species and exotic pathogens. Even without a direct link to human health, there are human costs. Fish stocks depleted by a disease outbreak aren’t there to be fished. Diseases that affect livestock and poultry trigger trade embargoes and expensive, ugly culls. It can even be something as sideways as a predator die-off that sets the stage for a bumper crop of grain-gobbling mice. Or as heartbreaking as the loss of a migrating songbirds and a quieter, if not entirely silent, Spring.

The costs to wildlife, of course, are devastating.

During the 1950s, when Milt studied wildlife conservation at the University of Maine, avian botulism and lead poisoning were the big wildlife health issues. Today, the list is so staggeringly long, it fills a nearly-400 page book recently published by USGS. “Disease Emergence and Resurgence” doesn’t have the catchiest title, but it is a must-read for wildlife biologists, veterinarians, sportsmen, doctors, public health officials, medical researchers, policy-makers, urban planners, architects (smart design can actually help reduce disease risks), and anyone who cares about the environment, health and the future.

The lead author: Milton Friend.

From a childhood spent hunting, fishing and working in the family’s WWII-era Victory Garden, Milt’s life has been defined by a love of the outdoors. In the interview below, Milt talks about growing up, his mentors, conservation, changing values, and his concerns and ideas for the future.

Disease may be an “outcome,” but that also means that it is not inevitable -- providing changes are made in time. Back when few saw a problem, Milt was flying around the country from outbreak to outbreak, a wildlife doctor making house calls, raising the alarm. Today, that alarm has become a steady roar, with every new disease from monkeypox to bird flu making headlines with pictures of animal carnage and unsettling reports of our own species’ spectacular vulnerability. The time has come, says Milt, for a new approach to conservation and health, a new way of thinking.

– j.a.g.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6