Bruce Rideout, D.V.M., Ph.D.

Director of Wildlife Disease Laboratories

Dr. Bruce Rideout serves the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research as Director of Wildlife Disease Laboratories. He oversees four distinct laboratories—clinical pathology laboratories at the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park; anatomic pathology lab; molecular diagnostics lab—which function as a unit to carry out disease investigations for the San Diego Zoo’s collections and field conservation programs.

Dr. Rideout joined the San Diego Zoo in 1991 as an associate pathologist and was named head of the Pathology Division in 1996. His primary interests include pathogenesis and epidemiology of infectious diseases, avian embryonic and neonatal pathology as it relates to captive propagation for recovery programs, population dynamics of infectious disease, and disease risk assessment for translocation and reintroduction programs.

Dr. Rideout majored in chemistry as an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego, then went on to the University of California, Davis, where he received his doctor of veterinary medicine degree in 1986. After completing pathology residency training at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., he returned to U.C. Davis where he received a Ph.D. studying the effects of retroviruses on the immune system. He is board certified in veterinary pathology.

Dr. Rideout is a member of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists, American Association of Zoo Veterinarians, Wildlife Disease Association, American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians, American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, and American Veterinary Medical Association. He is also an advisor to a variety of conservation programs, including the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Species Survival Plans for California condors and Humboldt penguins, Taxon Advisory Groups for tapirs and marsupials, and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service recovery programs for the San Clemente loggerhead shrike and Hawaiian forest birds, as well as serving as vice chair for the AZA Animal Health Committee. Dr. Rideout has also served on several National Research Council (NRC) committees and chaired the NRC committee on the diagnosis and control of Johne’s disease in ruminants. In addition, he is an adjunct faculty member at San Diego State University, and a research fellow of The Peregrine Fund.