Animals can be difficult to treat, and they don’t always understand when a veterinarian is trying to help them. Because of this, many simple medical procedures are not possible without anesthesia, which could have an adverse effect on their health.
After years of work, scientists have succeeded in training various animals to cooperate in medical examinations and treatments. At the Twycross Zoo in England, chimpanzees now voluntarily open their mouths when researchers want to take DNA swaps.
These DNA samples are collected for University of Leicester professor Dr. Richard Badge. He studies the primates’ mobile DNA, which are also known as “jumping genes” for their ability to move within a chromosome.
Prior to the training, mouth swaps could only be performed when the chimpanzees were anesthetized.
Apart from accepting mouth swaps, these chimpanzees have learned to willingly present most parts of their bodies for inspection and let their caretakers take their temperatures with an ear thermometer, said Bridget Fry, Twycross Zoo’s animal health and research manager.
Chimpanzees are not the only species trained to cooperate with medical procedures. For over 10 years, Florida’s Dolphin Research Center (DRC) has been training its Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins to make life easier for veterinarians.
Cheryl Sullivan, DRC’s assistant director of animal care, said these trainings are “part of [DRC’s] commitment to providing [the dolphins] with the best possible care.”
The dolphins at DRC are trained to stretch out and turn, exposing various parts of their body above the water for examination; surface on their side for ultrasound examinations; provide blood, gastric, fecal, urine, milk, and sperm samples voluntarily; perform a forceful exhale for an air sample from their lungs; keep their blowholes open for examination; and take vitamins without trainers having to hide the pills in their fish.
Perhaps most incredible, these trained dolphins now easily accept the insertion of a tube through their mouths so they can be given nutritional supplements or water.
As seawater is too concentrated, dolphins don’t actually drink. Instead they get their water from both the fish they eat and their ability to oxidize fat to create water. A problem with this process or a problem in the kidney could be fatal, and administering freshwater through a tube has been found to be an effective way to hydrate their bodies.
Because of this training, treating animals at DRC is much more convenient than before, Sullivan said. If the dolphins weren’t trained to cooperate with medical operations, a team of DRC staff would have to go into the water and make the dolphins go into stretches just to perform routine physical examinations. Now it can be done simply with one person at the dock.
