Amendments suggested for zoo medical research strategies with focus on the D-A-CH region

Abstract

Objective Scientific exploration of zoo animals is one of the main missions of modern zoos. As scientific achievements are best reflected within scientific literature, we screened appropriate literature search outcomes from the 5 highest ranked zoos in the D-A-CH region (Germany-Austria-Switzerland) in order to deduce suggestions for optimizations of future research strategies. Material and methods Literature search was done by entering ”Zoo Vienna”, “Tiergarten Schönbrunn”, “Zoo Berlin”, “Tiergarten Berlin”, “Tierpark Hellabrunn”, “Tierpark Hagenbeck”, and “Zoo Zurich” on PubMed and Scopus for the period 2000–2020. These 5 European zoos were chosen due to their broad public recognition and international importance. Inclusion criterion for the literature list was the description/mentioning of analysed animals or samples with a clear affiliation to the respective zoo in the materials and methods or acknowledgements sections. Search hits were then allocated to the following 7 areas: animal nutrition, biology, ethology, infectiology, reproduction, phylogenetics, and clinical medicine. Also, portions of higher animal taxa (and species, if appropriate) were recorded. Results and conclusions A total of 142 papers has been published. Mammals, especially large ones, were clearly over-represented in literature with 2 thirds of analysed papers dealing with them. Sauropsids (birds and reptiles) were treated in 28 % and non-amniotic vertebrates (amphibians and fish) as well as invertebrates in only 3 % each. This apportionment is in no relation to the species numbers of the respective higher animal taxa. The predominating research areas (covered by approximately 75 % of papers) were ethological studies, followed by papers on infectious diseases, and finally papers on biology with morphological, physiological, and molecular biological themes. Research on reproductive biology/medicine, which is considered to be of tremendous importance for the establishment of ex-situ populations and thus for the conservation of endangered species, has been covered by only 6 % of papers. Future research should more intensely keep an eye on that discipline, especially in non-mammalian vertebrates.

Differential Loss of OAS Genes Indicates Diversification of Antiviral Immunity in Mammals

“…These findings provide a basis for studying the impact of particular OAS gene combinations on the induction of anti-viral defense in follow-up studies. For a comprehensive evaluation of the significance of OAS genes in zoonoses, reports on other hosts of coronaviruses [ 27 , 47 , 48 ] and zoonoses involving other viruses should also be considered [ 35 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 ].…”

“…The differences in the conservation of established OAS family members, OAS1 , OAS2 , OAS3 , OASL and OASL2 , and possibly also the presence or absence of OAS4 and OAS5, may contribute to differences in responses to viral dsRNA in mammalian species. Studies are warranted to determine the impact of specific OAS gene sets on the control of viruses in phylogenetically diverse mammals [ 39 , 49 , 61 , 62 ].…”

NOD2 and reproduction-associated NOD-like receptors have been lost during the evolution of pangolins

“…The loss of NLRPs that are associated with germ cell biology and embryonic development (Table 1 ) suggests that the reproduction of pangolins does not depend on NLRP-mediated processes, which are not understood at present but may include the control of inflammation (Amoushahi et al 2019 ; Yin et al 2020 ; Carriere et al 2021 ). Deepening the knowledge on the physiology of reproduction and embryology of pangolins would be beneficial for conservation aspects of these highly endangered species as breeding efforts in zoos are scarce (Yang et al 2007 ; Sipos and Lutonsky 2021 ).…”