Rita Santos

I graduated from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine - ULisboa, in 2018, with a master's project regarding eastern cottontail rabbit admission causes and respective outcomes at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre of Minnesota, where I completed my veterinary traineeship. Later, I worked as a wildlife and small animal veterinarian in the United Kingdom and in Portugal, respectively.

In 2023, I completed a Master’s degree in Conservation Biology, from the University of Évora, and my dissertation project was focused on haemoparasites of owls in mainland Portugal.

I am enrolled in the Doctoral Programme in Biodiversity, Genetics and Evolution of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto and the goal of my PhD project is to study the condition and health of large primates in the Mayombe National Park, Angola.

My main interests are wildlife health and conservation, as well as epidemiology of parasitic and infectious diseases, particularly zoonoses.