Comparison of the cardiovascular effects of immobilization with three different drug combinations in free-ranging African lions
Loading...
Date
Authors
Donaldson, Ashleigh Claire
Meyer, Leith Carl Rodney
Fuller, Andrea
Buss, Peter
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Abstract
Thirty-six free-ranging lions (12 per group) were immobilized with tiletamine–zolazepam (Zoletil 0.6 mg/kg i.m.) plus medetomidine (0.036 mg/kg i.m.) (TZM), ketamine (3.0 mg/kg i.m.) plus medetomidine (0.036 mg/kg i.m.) (KM) or ketamine (1.2 mg/kg i.m.) plus butorphanol (0.24 mg/kg i.m.) plus medetomidine (0.036 mg/kg i.m.) (KBM). During immobilization cardiovascular variables were monitored at 5-minute intervals for a period of 30 minutes. Lions immobilized with all three drug combinations were severely hypertensive. Systolic arterial pressure was higher at initial sampling in lions immobilized with KM (237.3 ± 24.8 mmHg) than in those immobilized with TZM (221.0 ± 18.1 mmHg) or KBM (226.0 ± 20.6 mmHg) and decreased to 205.8 ± 19.4, 197.7 ± 23.7 and 196.3 ± 17.7 mmHg, respectively. Heart rates were within normal ranges for healthy, awake lions and decreased throughout the immobilization regardless of drug combination used. Lions immobilized with TZM had a higher occurrence (66%) of skipped heart beats than those immobilized with KBM (25%). The three drug combinations all caused negative cardiovascular effects, which were less when KBM was used, but adverse enough to warrant further investigations to determine if these effects can be reversed or prevented when these three combinations are used to immobilize free-living lions.
Description
DATA AVAILABILITY : The data underlying this article are available in the article and in its online supplementary material.
Keywords
Skipped heart beats, Medetomidine, Hypertension, Heart rate, Lion (Panthera leo), SDG-03: Good health and well-being
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG-03:Good heatlh and well-being
Citation
Donaldson, A.C., Meyer, L.C.R., Fuller, A. & Buss, P.E. (2023) Comparison of the cardiovascular effects of immobilization with three different drug combinations in free-ranging African lions. Conservation Physiology 11(1): coac077; DOI:10.1093/conphys/coac077.