Description of Research Expertise

The Pennsylvania Wildlife Futures Program integrates disease surveillance and mitigation into a single, unified effort to address wildlife populations at risk. Dr. Scott Weber has always had an interest in wildlife and devoted significant time while in veterinary school at the University of Pennsylvania to a variety of unique experiences such as volunteering for the wildlife rehabilitation program, participating in the Aquavet aquatic animal medicine programs, completing elective wildlife and ecology courses, and conducting research investigating zoonotic Cystic echinococcosis (CE) infections of sheep, goats, and camels in Africa.
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. His research involved the pathogen, Theileria lestoquardi, a parasite related to malaria, that infects sheep, goats, and other hoofstock primarily in the Middle East and Northeast Africa with Malignant ovine theileriosis (MOT).
His studies in the UK culminated with an MSc degree with distinction ( top 1% of all graduates) in Aquatic Veterinary Studies/Pathobiology from Stirling University, completing research in rainbow trout by demonstrating the immunomodulatory effect of melatonin in fish that were challenged with vibrio infection.

After Scotland, he established himself as a leader in aquarium and zoo medicine, managing animal health teams and providing veterinary care for the collection, research, and wildlife rehabilitation animals at the NJ State Aquarium, and subsequently as the head veterinarian at the New England Aquarium.
Scott then took a faculty position at UC Davis and built a clinical aquatic medicine program, oversaw an aquatic animal diagnostic laboratory, and managed hundreds of thousands in research grants annually. He also had clinical responsibilities fulfilling zoo veterinary contracts; teaching veterinary students, interns, and residents; and providing veterinary coverage for the California Raptor Center.
Dr. Weber started a pilot wildlife disease surveillance program through a grant from the US Forest Service and California Department of Fish and Wildlife investigating the prevalence of whirling disease infection of native and stocked salmon and trout in streams affected by wildfires and wildfire mitigation.
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). These fellowships provide opportunities for outstanding scientists and engineers to learn first-hand about policymaking and Executive branch communications in Washington, DC, while fellows contribute their specialized knowledge and analytical skills to the federal policymaking process. During his 2-year fellowship, Scott served in the International Regulations and Standards Division of the Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS IRSD) providing scientific analysis on topics including domestic and wildlife diseases, food safety, agricultural contaminants, and microbial resistance.

He represented the FAS IRSD at the Hague for World Trade Codex Alimentarius meetings for food safety standards. During this time Scott became boarded with the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine and was also certified as an Aquatic Veterinarian by the World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association (WAVMA). After his fellowship with FAS, Scott was hired by USDA APHIS Veterinary Services as a Veterinary Medical Officer in Virginia during the highly-pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) response and he worked on a variety of other USDA disease issues in the state including inspections of imported zoo animals, scrapie sampling (both live animals and necropsy cases), swine brucellosis/wild swine interactions, aquaculture, cervid/wild hoofstock TB testing, and several cattle/equine research projects and disease responses. His family most recently relocated to Pennsylvania where he joined Penn Vet’s Wildlife Futures Program.