Rate My Professor Renata Fernandes Santos

Renata Fernandes Santos is a Lecturer in Wildlife and Conservation Medicine in the School of Veterinary Medicine at Murdoch University. She holds a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Universidade Federal do Paraná in Brazil, obtained between March 2003 and December 2007. She completed a Master's degree from February 2009 to October 2011 and is currently pursuing a PhD in Wildlife and Conservation Medicine at Murdoch University from March 2022 to March 2026. Her doctoral research focuses on disease risk analysis and epidemiological aspects relevant to wildlife conservation.

Santos specializes in wildlife and conservation medicine, veterinary epidemiology, and One Health. Her research has centered on health assessments of threatened species, particularly lowland tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) in Brazil's Cerrado and Atlantic Forest biomes, investigating impacts from poaching, pesticides, heavy metals, rabies, ticks, rickettsia, and other pathogens. Key publications include 'Health assessment of wild lowland tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) in the highly threatened Cerrado biome, Brazil' (2020, cited 35 times, co-authored with Emilia Patricia Medici et al.); 'Lowland tapir exposure to pesticides and metals in the Brazilian Cerrado' (2021, cited 28 times); 'Rabies Virus Exposure in Wild Lowland Tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) from Three Brazilian Biomes' (2021, cited 9 times); 'Poaching and hunting conflicts and health assessment of wild lowland tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) in the Atlantic Forest biome, Brazil' (2024, cited 10 times, co-authored with R.M. Paolino et al.); 'Terrestrial Invasive Species on Fernando de Noronha Archipelago' (2020, cited 19 times); and 'Targeted molecular screening for protozoan parasites in wild platypuses (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) and associated risk factors for infection' (2025). She co-edited the Tapir Veterinary Manual (2014, IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group) and contributed chapters on cryptosporidiosis, giardiasis, amebiasis, and hematological parameters in primates. At Murdoch, she has served as Animal Health Ontology Research Assistant and Project Officer for the ASEAN-Australia One Health Fellowship Program.