DENVER ZOO SUPPORTS GORILLA HEART HEALTH - Gorillas Being Trained to Participate in Their Own Testing
Just in time for American Heart Month, Denver Zoo zookeepers are beginning to train gorillas for heart health monitoring. The zoo has joined the Great Ape Heart Project (GAHP), a partnership with nearly 20 zoos across North America to understand heart disease, reduce mortality and improve cardiac health in all four great ape species (gorillas, orangutans, chimpanzees and bonobos).
"Cardiovascular disease is common in gorillas, just as it is in humans," says Denver Zoo Curator of Behavioral Husbandry Emily Insalaco, "The difference is we have a lot of information about cardiovascular disease in humans and we have very little about it in gorillas so this is a chance for us to get more information that will help us manage and treat any diseases."
Denver Zoo staff and veterinarians are beginning to train its three male gorillas to participate in their testing. Because heart function is better evaluated without the use of anesthesia, the gorillas remain awake. They are asked to hold their hands high, present their chests against a mesh wall and finally accept the touch of fake ultrasound probes on their chests. This behavioral conditioning is to teach the gorillas to hold the proper positions to allow zookeepers to get good ultrasound readings and so the gorillas won't damage expensive equipment once real testing begins. Eventually the gorillas will be trained to put their arms in blood pressure cuffs and give blood samples as well.
Cardiovascular disease as a major cause of great ape deaths is a relatively recent discovery. A 1994 survey of gorilla deaths found that cardiovascular disease was involved in 41 percent of cases. Later findings indicated a common form of the disease called fibrosing cardiomyopathy, which replaces the flexible, contracting muscle fibers of the heart with stiff, tougher fibrous tissue that disrupts the heart's ability to pump blood. Although the major disease has been identified, unfortunately many aspects such as the diagnosis and treatment of it are not fully understood.
The goal of the study is to gather information from all cooperating institutions to build a database. Ideally this will allow experts to discern normal and abnormal great ape heart activity and better allow them to manage, reduce and prevent cardiovascular disease. Questions experts hope to answer include if the cause is genetic, environment or diet related and even if there are ways to address heart disease in great apes that are already used in humans.
February 14, 2011
