By Julie Ter Beest M.S., D.V.M., Dipl. ACZM, Director of Veterinary Services and Brendan Johnson, D.V.M., Ph.D., Veterinarian. Photos by Sara Sorraia. Originally published in LEMURS Magazine: The “Where” Issue in February 2025.
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One of our most rewarding partnerships is our Malagasy Veterinary Internship Program, a grant-funded program that enables us to host talented Malagasy veterinarians at the Duke Lemur Center to focus on various aspects of lemur medicine.
This spring, we hosted Dr. Santatra Randrianarisoa, who graduated from veterinary school at the University of Antananarivo, Madagascar, in 2022. During his three-month internship, Santatra received in-depth training on a wide variety of topics, including lemur medicine and surgery, anesthesiology, pharmacology, dentistry, diagnostic imaging, nutrition, laboratory analyses, pathology, and lemur husbandry. He participated in daily clinical cases, veterinary department case rounds, lectures and continuing education seminars, and veterinary journal reviews. Dr. Randrianarisoa became proficient in providing veterinary care to multiple species of lemurs at the DLC and returned to his home country with the skills necessary to care for lemurs in Madagascar.
Dr. Randrianarisoa also attended local and regional One Health seminars to broaden the scope of his internship and develop analytical skills that may translate to a wide range of domestic and wild animals. Through connections established at Duke’s Global Health Institute, Santatra attended the Triangle Center for Evolutionary Medicine’s (TriCEM) Evolutionary Medicine Summer Institute, which covered approaches relevant to studying the intersection between human, animal, and ecological health.
As the final component of his internship at the Duke Lemur Center, Santatra developed a research proposal investigating the potential presence and impact of leptospirosis in lemurs and other mammals in Madagascar. Dr. Randrianarisoa traveled back to his home country and resumed work as the Laboratory Manager at Mahaliana Labs in Antananarivo, a laboratory specializing in wildlife health assessments, including molecular analyses of biological samples. He plans to complete his research project and ultimately hopes to advance his studies in a Ph.D. program.
Dr. Santatra Randrianarisoa graduated from veterinary school at the University of Antananarivo, Madagascar, in 2022.
With the DLC veterinary team.
Working in the Borruel Center lab.
Santatra is the Laboratory Manager at Mahaliana Labs in Antananarivo, a laboratory specializing in wildlife health assessments.
