David Waltner-Toews is a Canadian epidemiologist, essayist, poet, fiction writer, veterinarian

Veterinarian

A veterinary physician, colloquially called a vet, shortened from veterinarian or veterinary surgeon , is a professional who treats disease, disorder and injury in animals....

, and a specialist in the epidemiology of food and waterborne diseases, zoonoses and ecosystem health. He is best known for his work on animal and human infectious diseases in relation to complexity.

A professor in the Department of Population Medicine at the University of Guelph

University of Guelph

The University of Guelph, also known as U of G, is a comprehensive public research university in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1964 after the amalgamation of Ontario Agricultural College, the Macdonald Institute, and the Ontario Veterinary College...

, he is the founding president of Veterinarians without Borders/ Vétérinaires sans Frontières, and founding president of the Network for Ecosystem Sustainability and Health.

Besides about 100 peer-reviewed scholarly papers and a textbook (Ecosystem Sustainability and Health: a practical approach, Cambridge, 2004), he has published half a dozen books of poetry, a collection of poems and recipes, an award-winning collection of short stories (One Foot in Heaven), a murder mystery (Fear of Landing) and a book about the natural history of diseases people get from animals (The Chickens Fight Back: Pandemic Panics and Deadly Diseases that Jump from Animals to Humans). In 2011 he collaborated with artist Diane Maclean

Diane Maclean

Diane Maclean is a sculptor and environmental artist, she is a Fellow and council member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors.Diane gained a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art from the University of Hertfordshire, having previously gained a BA in modern languages at University College...

 on her exhibition Bird at Killhope

Killhope

Killhope is a small settlement at the very highest end of Weardale in County Durham, England.It is home of the North of England Lead Mining Museum which is based at the old Park Head Mine....

 North of England Lead Mining Museum

North of England Lead Mining Museum

The North of England Lead Mining Museum, also known as Killhope, is an industrial museum near the village of Cowshill, County Durham, England...

, contributing a new poem, The Love Song of the Javanese Singing Cock

Books

• The Ecosystem Approach: Complexity, Uncertainty and Managing for Sustainability (with James Kay and Nina-Marie Lister)
• Ecosystem Sustainability and Health: a practical approach
• Food, Sex and Salmonella: Why Our Food Is Making Us Sick
• The Earth is One Body
• Good Housekeeping
• The Fat Lady Struck Dumb
• One Foot in Heaven
• Fear of Landing
• The Chickens Fight Back: Pandemic Panics and Deadly Diseases that Jump from Animals to Humans
• One Animal Among Many: Gaia, Goats and Garlic

Awards

• 2006 Winner, Best Regional Fiction – Canada West, Independent Publisher Book Awards, for One Foot in Heaven
• 2007 Finalist, Canadian Science Writers' Association Book Award, for Chickens Fight Back

External links

• Veterinarians without Borders/ Vétérinaires sans Frontières
• Network for Ecosystem Sustainability and Health