Spring/Summer 2013 Aesculapian Magazine - University of Georgia ...

CollegeNews
Heart help
for the
Great Apes
UGA Pathologists and Clinicians Play Big Role in Groundbreaking Great Ape Heart
Project Based at Zoo Atlanta
By Jessica Luton
Just over an hour
away from the UGA
CVM, Zoo Atlanta has
embarked on a project
aimed at helping the great
apes, which, similar to
humans, are impacted by
heart disease as a leading
chronic disease and cause
of mortality.
Of the four taxa of
great apes living in U.S.
zoos, about 41 percent
of gorillas, 20 percent of
orangutans, 38 percent
of chimpanzees, and 45
percent of bonobos die
from heart disease. It has
also been found in wild
apes, although much
less is known about the
prevalence of disease in
this population.
For zoo veterinarians
throughout the United
States, the frequency of
heart disease in captive
apes has been cause for concern for some time. About
a decade ago, zoo veterinarians began to realize that
the criteria used to diagnose and classify heart disease
in humans were not necessarily applicable to apes.
In 2006, representatives from Zoo Atlanta, the UGA
CVM, and a small group of gorilla clinicians from
other organizations convened a meeting in Chicago
to discuss heart disease in great apes, and agreed that
their medical approaches to identifying and treating
the disease needed to change. Subsequent meetings,
The entire team examines Margaret, a chimpanzee, at the Limbe Wildlife Centre in Cameroon. Pictured from
left: Dr. Ben Brainard, of the UGA CVM; Dr. Kyang John Anyam, of the LWC; Dr. Gregg Rapoport, of the UGA
CVM; Dr. Jennifer Glavis, a volunteer veterinarian at LWC; Dr. Hayley Murphy, of Zoo Atlanta; and Dr. Ilana
Kutinsky, of the Michigan Heart Rhythm Group and a clinical associate professor of cardiology at the Oakland
University William Beaumont Hospital School of Medicine. Photo by Adam Thompson/Courtesy of Zoo Atlanta.
involving a growing group of stakeholders, led to the
identification of specific goals to better understand
the development of and therapy for heart disease in
apes. Thus began the evolution of what is now known
as the Great Ape Heart Project (GAHP).
The GAHP officially began in 2010 — the same year
the principal investigators were awarded a National
Leadership Planning Grant from the Institute of
Museum and Library Services (IMLS) for about
$100,000, affording the group an opportunity to plan
for a long-term collaborative project. The organizing
15
The University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine