Zoo InternQuest is a career exploration program for high school students. For more information see the Zoo InternQuest Journals. For more photos see the Zoo InternQuest Photo Journal.

The name’s pathology, clinical pathology. Alright, so it doesn’t sound quite as suave as James Bond, but once you get to talking with Laura Keener, the Senior Clinical Laboratory Manager for the San Diego Zoo, you’ll see that the swanky spy has nothing on this innovative field.

Just what IS clinical pathology, exactly? As Ms. Keener will tell you, clinical pathology is the study and diagnosis of disease through the analysis of everything from blood and urine to water and soil to uncover not only the causes of a certain disease, but also how to eradicate it. Such work is crucial in maintaining the health of the variety of animals in the Zoo’s collection. Ms. Keener, a clinical pathologist herself, oversees the staff of technicians, veterinarians, and keepers at the Zoo and Wild Animal Park’s medical facilities who work together to keep the animals disease-free.

The daily duties of the medical staff are broken down into three sections. Making up the majority of their responsibilities (roughly 85%) is clinical work, which includes tending to sick animals, investigating diseases, and carefully screening animals that have arrived from, or are to be sent to, other zoos. Conservation studies and research make up another 10%, and the remaining 5% is devoted to taking necropsy samples (analyzing samples from deceased animals to determine their cause of death). Though seasoned in this expansive field, Ms. Keener still says that every now and then she discovers a new species of parasite or a disease never before seen, which she says is the most exciting (and difficult) part of her work as a pathologist. “It’s a challenge to know what is, in fact, normal for a specific animal”, she says. A parasite known to be harmful to one animal may be beneficial to another, such as the mysterious string of tapeworm eggs recently found in the feces of a resident rhino. Friend or foe? Or perhaps neither. That’s for the staff at the Zoo to find out.

Claire, Careers Team