Patricia Latas 64th International Conference of the Wildlife Disease Association 2015

Patricia Latas

Dr. Latas is currently serving as the avian wildlife veterinarian for Tucson Wildlife Center, where patients include everything from Costa’s Hummingbirds to Pacific Loons, Roadrunners to Townsend’s Warblers. Before retiring due to the constraints of treatment for breast cancer, she was the veterinarian for Arizona Bird Clinic, the only veterinary facility in the state that catered solely to avian species. She was the in-house veterinarian for a huge animal shelter (70,000 animals per year); and staff veterinarian for a large (7,000 admitted per annum and 400+residents) wildlife rescue, rehabilitation and exotic animal sanctuary facility--residents included farm animals, big cats, primates, domesticated deer, and all wildlife native to central Texas. Psittacine conservation and rescue are important to Dr. Latas, and she consults with a number of parrot organizations. She also serves on number of advisory committees, and is the Chair of the Conservation Committee for American Association of Fish Veterinarians. Dr. Latas was deeply honored to be selected to work as a kakapo volunteer on pristine Whenua Hou Island with the Department of Conservation in New Zealand, in 2011 and 2014. Dr. Latas has a BS in botany and MS in biology; DVM from Oregon State. Dr. Latas has a certificate in Science Illustration. She worked in dotcom animation and donates traditional and digital artwork to a number of conservation organizations.