Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine Publishes Study by
Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) on Parasitology of Cheetahs
January 15, 2013 (OTJIWARONGO, Namibia) – The Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine has published “Diagnosis Based Treatment in Captive and Wild Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus),” a study addressing parasite load and treatment in captive and wild cheetahs. The CCF scientists used cheetah scat –which they call “black gold”-- in a comparative study identifying four species of intestinal parasites and showing that wild cheetahs carry high parasite loads, higher even than those that were reported in CCF’s captive animals which are under good veterinary care.
“Internal parasites can threaten the health of both wild and captive cheetahs. There is still insufficient information about cheetahs in the wild and we take every opportunity to learn more about them through our research,” says Dr. Laurie Marker, CCF’s Founder and Executive Director and senior author of the study. “We’re pleased that the research capacity that we’ve built here at CCF – our veterinary clinic, genetics lab and our research centre– makes a study like this possible.”
The study also showed efficacy of the chosen treatment by verifying parasite load after the medicine was administered. The study’s observations are important both for understanding wild populations of cheetahs and the clinical management of captive populations.
The study’s use of cheetah scat from both captive and wild cheetahs at CCF’s Field Research and Conservation Centre in Otjiwarongo, Namibia, afforded a unique opportunity to compare captive and wild populations present in the same general locale and over the same period. CCF researchers used samples from resident non-releasable cheetahs which are housed in 5-100-acre enclosures on CCF property in a semi-natural environment, as well as from wild cheetahs that are known to frequent CCF’s farmland as part of their natural home range (averaging over 1500km2).
The scat samples allowed researchers to determine parasite loads, while genetic material derived from the scat of the wild cheetahs was analysed in CCF’s laboratory to verify the identity of the individual cheetahs being studied, so that parasite loads of wild cheetahs could be compared with captive ones. “With the constant progress in genetic methods and applications, this field becomes more and more valuable to conservation”, says co-author of the study, Dr. Anne Schmidt-Küntzel, Research Geneticist and Assistant Director for Animal Health and Research at CCF.
The study was authored by Marie Mény D.M.V.; Anne Schmidt-Küntzel, D.M.V., Ph.D.; and Laurie L Marker, D.Phil. Dr. Marie Mény was a veterinary student from the École Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse, France, doing an internship at CCF at the time of the study. An abstract of the study is available online here: http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1638/2012-0028R1.1
“Internal parasites can threaten the health of both wild and captive cheetahs. There is still insufficient information about cheetahs in the wild and we take every opportunity to learn more about them through our research,” says Dr. Laurie Marker, CCF’s Founder and Executive Director and senior author of the study. “We’re pleased that the research capacity that we’ve built here at CCF – our veterinary clinic, genetics lab and our research centre– makes a study like this possible.”
The study also showed efficacy of the chosen treatment by verifying parasite load after the medicine was administered. The study’s observations are important both for understanding wild populations of cheetahs and the clinical management of captive populations.
The study’s use of cheetah scat from both captive and wild cheetahs at CCF’s Field Research and Conservation Centre in Otjiwarongo, Namibia, afforded a unique opportunity to compare captive and wild populations present in the same general locale and over the same period. CCF researchers used samples from resident non-releasable cheetahs which are housed in 5-100-acre enclosures on CCF property in a semi-natural environment, as well as from wild cheetahs that are known to frequent CCF’s farmland as part of their natural home range (averaging over 1500km2).
The scat samples allowed researchers to determine parasite loads, while genetic material derived from the scat of the wild cheetahs was analysed in CCF’s laboratory to verify the identity of the individual cheetahs being studied, so that parasite loads of wild cheetahs could be compared with captive ones. “With the constant progress in genetic methods and applications, this field becomes more and more valuable to conservation”, says co-author of the study, Dr. Anne Schmidt-Küntzel, Research Geneticist and Assistant Director for Animal Health and Research at CCF.
The study was authored by Marie Mény D.M.V.; Anne Schmidt-Küntzel, D.M.V., Ph.D.; and Laurie L Marker, D.Phil. Dr. Marie Mény was a veterinary student from the École Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse, France, doing an internship at CCF at the time of the study. An abstract of the study is available online here: http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1638/2012-0028R1.1