Life just got a little better for all those critters that get tangled up in the human routine.
A lab in UVA’s Department of Biomedical Engineering has donated an ultrasound scanner to the Wildlife Center of Virginia. William Walker, head of the lab, purchased the General Electric Logiq 700 MR scanner in 1997 for $100,000, though it has since depreciated to between $5,000 to $10,000.
Walker says he would have preferred to donate the scanner for human use. But it had been modified for experiments in his lab and thus no longer met Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards.
 The bald eagles of Virginia have access to improved medical care, thanks to a UVA donation to the Wildlife Center of Virginia. |
“UVA can only donate to nonprofits, so many animal hospitals were out of the question,” says Walker. The Wildlife Center of Virginia, located in Waynesboro, treats injured wildlife and heavily relies on private donations for most of its operations. Since opening its doors in 1982, the Center has cared for more than 50,000 wild animals, from reptiles to native birds and mammals.
The once-state-of-the-art machine was received by the Wildlife Center with open arms. “We are so glad to have the machine,” says Dr. Elizabeth Daut. “It’s ultra-high-end quality.”
Daut says the ultrasound machine is a much needed resource this time of year. “We are going into raptor season,” she says. “We are seeing the migration of birds coming from the north and going further south.” Some of them, says Daut, will inevitably end up on the side of the road hit by incoming traffic.
The scanner will enable vets to explore and better detect legions in the birds’ bodies and avoid invasive procedures, thus saving the animal unnecessary stress.
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