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Animal Vaccination; A Wellington Zoo Guide
13 June 2005
Bribing your cat to swallow medicine may seem like a difficult task, but for Wellington Zoo's Animal Conditioning and Veterinary teams, vaccinating Lion cubs, Zulu and Malik is an entirely different kettle of fish.
Born at Auckland Zoo, Zulu and Malik arrived at Wellington Zoo in September last year and the time has now come for their second round of vaccinations, due to happen in the next few weeks.
Vaccinated against the same diseases affecting domestic cats, this standard vaccine offers protection against viruses such as Feline Panleucopaenie, Feline Rhinotracheitis and Feline Calicivirus.
Wellington Zoo Manager Life Sciences and Veterinarian, Doctor Katja Geschke says "We use a vaccine with a dead virus instead of a live-attenuated vaccine, which decreases the risks for our animals. Wild animals are more sensitive to vaccines than domestic animals. African Wild Dogs for example can get clinical distemper just because of a vaccination with a vaccine which was developed for domestic dogs. We therefore only use dead vaccines for our Wild animals".
Ongoing daily medical conditioning is key to the successful vaccination of these animals in a stress free way. This involves a routine in which operant conditioning is used in order to observe the Lion's body to decipher its health status.
Wellington Zoo Animal Conditioner and Trainer, Gerry Whitehouse-Tedd says "We start with the basic body inspection. We train the animal to stay still in a position so that we can observe it to make sure it is healthy. On our command, the animal knows to put its paws up against the wall so we can inspect the underside of the animal and see underneath the paws to check there are no cuts".
Administering vaccines and other injections has become a stress free operation since animal conditioning began at Wellington Zoo in 2003. Prior to this, all vaccines had been administered by darting the animal which involved using a blow pipe containing a vaccination dart which would be blown such that the dart would fly into the animal's leg administering the vaccination.
"This was quite a difficult procedure because it was painful for the animal and other animals yet to be vaccinated were stressed because they knew what was coming! It also meant that if the dart fell out, the animal would sometimes chew the dart and this could potentially hurt the animal" decribes Katja.
"Being able to get up close to the animal means we can administer a relatively pain free injection into the leg muscle. The Lions don't even flinch now, it's so much easier than before".
One of the most important aspects of medical conditioning involves training the animal to stand on scales to be weighed as this is considered an important health indicator which can help to illustrate whether the animal is unwell.
While the Lions are the next animals to be vaccinated, conditioning also takes place with other mammals including the five metre tall Giraffes and birds at the Zoo for purposes including weighing, group separation, dental inspections and blood samples.
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