Noninvasive Saliva Collection Techniques for Free-Ranging Mountain Gorillas and Captive Eastern Gorillas

Abstract

This study was designed to develop a simple, noninvasive method for saliva collection: a first step toward developing new diagnostic tests to survey gorillas for infectious diseases. The subjects included free-ranging mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) in the Parc National des Volcans, Rwanda, and a group of orphan mountain and Grauer's gorillas (Gorilla heringei graueri) housed nearby in a temporary holding facility. Three collection methods were used to recover saliva from discarded forest food: swabbing, soaking, and washing. Saliva was also collected from orphan gorillas maintained in a captive setting by using dental ropes inside mesh bags. The presence of gorilla saliva in each sample was confirmed by using a salivary s-amylase assay and forensic press test paper. The recovery of gorilla DNA was verified by polymerase chain reaction by using primers specific to mountain and Grauer's gorillas. Of the three collection techniques used to recover saliva from forest food, directly swabbing plant bite marks was the most effective. Wild celery (Peucedanum linderi) provided for the most consistent saliva recovery and is eaten year round by mountain gorillas in Rwanda. This study shows that gorilla saliva can be recovered easily and noninvasively from known individual free-ranging gorillas by collecting pieces of wild celery discarded as the gorillas forage and from captive gorillas by offering them juice-soaked dental ropes inside mesh bags. Both methods can be used to recover gorilla DNA for genetic studies. Saliva collected from free-ranging and captive gorillas may prove to be a useful biologic sample for the development of new diagnostic tests and hormonal analysis.

Measurements of Salivary Alpha Amylase and Salivary Cortisol in Hominoid Primates Reveal Within-Species Consistency and Between-Species Differences

“…[10], [14], [15]). Likewise, sAA activity has been detected in all species of hominoidae [11], [12], [16], [17].…”

“…While sAA activity has been shown for mammalian taxa with diverse dietary habits such as carnivores [6], [7], rodents [7], [8] and nonhuman primates [9], [10], [11], [12], it is apparently missing in all ruminants investigated so far [6], [7]. Within the primate order New World monkeys show no quantifiable amount of sAA [8], [13] whereas some Old World monkeys such as baboons and macaques have high concentrations of sAA (e.g.…”

Biological traces at the crime scene

“…Ova kombinacija testova otkriva samu molekulu alfa-amilaze iz ljudske sline. RSID test znao je dati pozitivne rezultate u uzorcima koji sadrže alfa-amilazu iz sisavaca kao što su gorile i štakori 43 . Pozitivne reakcije također mogu biti u drugim tjelesnim tekućinama, kao što su sjemena tekućina, krv, vaginalni iscjedak, znoj i majčino mlijeko.…”

The risk of tuberculosis transmission to free‐ranging great apes

“…The collection of saliva samples of great apes from what is commonly referred to as "wadges," or masticated clumps of forest food, has found use in genetic research of free-living great apes and has more recently been employed in noninvasive disease screening [Inouse et al, 2007;Schaumburg et al, 2012a;Shimada et al, 2004;Smiley et al, 2010]. Saliva samples from animals with clinical signs of disease could be utilized for the detection and genotyping of M. tuberculosis through culture and/or commonly employed techniques such as IS6110 PCR-RFLP, spoligotyping, or mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable number tandem repeat (MIRU-VNTR) genotyping [Sankar et al, 2011;Wilbur et al, 2012].…”