Microsurgery on a Macro Scale: Elephant Vasectomies
HOEDSPRUIT (Kruger Times)- Laparoscopy, or keyhole surgery, is now a common medical procedure – but not when carried out on elephants. Four free-ranging male elephants from Makalali Private Game Reserve near Hoedspruit entered the history books when they underwent laparoscopic surgery to remove a 5cm section of their vas deferens– an elephant-sized vasectomy.
This is only the second time that the procedure has been carried out on live elephants, and the surgical team are continually refining their technique to decrease logistical problems and operating time. In future, vasectomies may be a means of controlling elephant population growth, especially in smaller reserves (Makalali is a "mere" 30,000 hectares in size).
The operation was carried out by a team of wildlife specialists, including Catchco vet Douw Grobler (formerly of the Kruger National Park and Walt Disney’s Animal Program vets Mark Stetter and Dean Hendrickson, a leader in the field of animal laparoscopy.
Innovative equipment is needed for this cutting-edge surgery, including specialised intubation equipment for elephant sized airways to ensure the lightest possible anaesthetic. The elephant is kept standing during the operation with a combination of slings and splints, the splints allowing the animal to support some of its own weight. The slings are slackened periodically throughout the operation to ensure good blood flow in the legs.
While grabbing and cutting tools in the laparascope find their target 60cm deep in the elephant’s side, a second team is cleaning and preparing the other side of the elephant for a quick snip in his other testicle. The equipment requires only an eight centimetre long cut. Once the procedure is complete on both sides, the elephant’s anaesthetic is reversed and he is free to roam again. Satellite collars have been fitted to keep track of the now-sterile bulls.
Catchco wildlife specialist JJ van Altena has said that in nine months to a year the elephants will have their collars removed, and scans will be performed as a follow up.
The procedure was carried out on Makalali not as a means of controlling the size of the population on the reserve, but to test the practicality of the exercise for future use. The 70-strong elephant population on Makalali is already intensively monitored as another form of contraception is in use there. The majority of the elephant cows are prevented from getting pregnant by a vaccine known as PZP, which uses the animal’s own immune system to prevent sperm fertilising eggs.
The PZP programme on Makalali is the longest running project of its kind on free-ranging elephants, with some cows having spent five years on the contraceptive. This year a number of animals will not receive their annual dose of contraceptive to observe the rate of reversal of the vaccine.
Makalali’s head of the immuno-contraception programme, Audrey Delsink, has said that although researchers are trying to source alternative methods of elephant contraception, so far PZP seems to be one of the most effective methods.
by Lynette Strauss, Kruger Times
This is only the second time that the procedure has been carried out on live elephants, and the surgical team are continually refining their technique to decrease logistical problems and operating time. In future, vasectomies may be a means of controlling elephant population growth, especially in smaller reserves (Makalali is a "mere" 30,000 hectares in size).
The operation was carried out by a team of wildlife specialists, including Catchco vet Douw Grobler (formerly of the Kruger National Park and Walt Disney’s Animal Program vets Mark Stetter and Dean Hendrickson, a leader in the field of animal laparoscopy.
Innovative equipment is needed for this cutting-edge surgery, including specialised intubation equipment for elephant sized airways to ensure the lightest possible anaesthetic. The elephant is kept standing during the operation with a combination of slings and splints, the splints allowing the animal to support some of its own weight. The slings are slackened periodically throughout the operation to ensure good blood flow in the legs.
While grabbing and cutting tools in the laparascope find their target 60cm deep in the elephant’s side, a second team is cleaning and preparing the other side of the elephant for a quick snip in his other testicle. The equipment requires only an eight centimetre long cut. Once the procedure is complete on both sides, the elephant’s anaesthetic is reversed and he is free to roam again. Satellite collars have been fitted to keep track of the now-sterile bulls.
Catchco wildlife specialist JJ van Altena has said that in nine months to a year the elephants will have their collars removed, and scans will be performed as a follow up.
The procedure was carried out on Makalali not as a means of controlling the size of the population on the reserve, but to test the practicality of the exercise for future use. The 70-strong elephant population on Makalali is already intensively monitored as another form of contraception is in use there. The majority of the elephant cows are prevented from getting pregnant by a vaccine known as PZP, which uses the animal’s own immune system to prevent sperm fertilising eggs.
The PZP programme on Makalali is the longest running project of its kind on free-ranging elephants, with some cows having spent five years on the contraceptive. This year a number of animals will not receive their annual dose of contraceptive to observe the rate of reversal of the vaccine.
Makalali’s head of the immuno-contraception programme, Audrey Delsink, has said that although researchers are trying to source alternative methods of elephant contraception, so far PZP seems to be one of the most effective methods.
by Lynette Strauss, Kruger Times
Labels: conservation, contraception, culling, elephants, makalali
posted by Kruger2Canyons.com at
Saturday, July 23, 2005
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