Orangutan Veterinary
Advisory Group
An annual seminar bringing together veterinary teams from the front lines of the orangutan conservation crisis — to develop skills, share data, and strengthen a community that saves lives.
Collectively, veterinarians and healthcare staff at rehabilitation centers in Borneo and Sumatra care for the largest captive population of orangutans in the world. Yet they face nearly impossible odds — often short of medicine, equipment, money, space, support staff, and time.
The heart of the OC OVAG Veterinary Workshop lies in practical sessions, presentations, group discussions, and focused activities that make the experience so valuable. Veterinarians who often work alone under extreme pressure find a space to ask questions, explore challenging situations, and form lasting friendships and partnerships.
The OC/OVAG Veterinary Workshop series was inaugurated in 2009, and the first meeting was held in the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation Samboja Lestari, East Kalimantan, Borneo.
The OC/OVAG 2010 Veterinary Workshop was staged in Medan, Sumatra, hosted by the Yayasan Ekosistem Lestari Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (YEL-SOCP).
The OC 2011 Veterinary Workshop was held in Jogjakarta, in collaboration with the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universitas Gadjah Mada.
The 2012 OVAG event was held in Kuala Lumpur, in collaboration with the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia.
Our growing workshop yet took place in Bogor, Indonesia – Have a look at the photos from the 2013 event. 2013 saw the largest group of orangutan veterinarians yet that shared their field experiences and expertise with each other. After the workshop these front-line heroes returned to their field sites across Indonesia and Malaysia to continue their work of orangutan health care.
2014 was our most ambitious workshop yet and in our new home base in Yogyakarta Indonesia in partnership with Gadjah Mada University.
2015 saw the largest workshop yet, with over 60 attendees, still in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
The 2016 Workshop was held in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, in collaboration with the Sabah Wildlife Department.
Back in Yogyakarta, we regroup with our old friends and keep growing with the constant new member of the OVAG community.
This year, we visited the beautiful Banda Aceh, a city located at the top north west of Indonesia. To celebrate this unique location, we invited our friends who worked with the iconic wildlife species of Sumatra. So in addition to sharing knowledge about orangutans, we also talked about the sumatran elephants, tigers, rhinos, and marine mammals.
92 in person participants from five continents attended in this workshop, our biggest number ever!
The 2020 workshop was held virtually due to COVID-19. Thanks to a grant and an invitation from University of Minnesota, we were able to build a meeting site with materials on the Canvas platform to facilitate remote online learning. We also held a weeklong “Live Session” that ran from July 6 – 10. 97 people attended the weeklong Zoom sessions – lasting 5 to 6 hours per day.
The 2021 workshop was held virtually due to COVID-19. This year saw our highest turnout yet with 114 participants on the first day! Major areas of focus were COVID-19, respiratory ailments, nutrition, welfare, case studies and a new and very important topic – that of mental health and care giver/conservation worker fatigue.
52 individuals were able to meet in-person, while 67 additional participants joined virtually! As promised last year, while returning to an in-person format, we still maintained our virtual presence to continue to reach as many interested members as possible in our growing conservation/one-health community. This year we discussed a wide range of topics in orangutan rehabilitation, veterinary management, animal welfare, and of course our own mental health.
A special workshop this year, as OVAG welcome a bigger audience from international organizations such as WOAH, IUCN, as well as representative from neighboring countries in the Southeast Asia region. 70 wildlife health professionals gathered, sharing knowledge and learning about One Health, wildlife disease surveillance, and disease investigation.
60 of our community members were able to meet in person, with 40-60 more attending virtually over Zoom. In this workshop we discussed all things about husbandry, emergency & critical care, pain management, and diagnostic techniques.
58 individuals were able to meet in person, with 33 attending virtually over Zoom. The focus on this workshop was on Respiratory Diseases and featured practical sessions along with highlighting case studies on various respiratory diseases and treatment.