You can’t get blood from a stone, but you need to get it somewhere- vampire bat (Desmondus rotundus) feeding logistics

Citation

Toddes B, Henry B. 2013. You can’t get blood from a stone, but you need to get it somewhere- vampire bat (Desmondus rotundus) feeding logistics. In Ward A, Coslik A, Mahan K, Treiber K, Reppert A, Maslanka M, Eds. Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Zoo and Wildlife Nutrition, AZA Nutrition Advisory Group, Salt Lake City, UT.

Abstract

The beef blood collection procedures for three AZA zoological institutions to feed Desmodus rotundus are reviewed. Blood collected for the Philadelphia Zoo is done at slaughter and an anticoagulant is added. Blood collected for the Cincinnati Zoo is also done at slaughter but no anticoagulant is added and blood collected for the Brookfield Zoo is taken from live animals within a donor herd and an anticoagulant is added. All three Zoos have very successful programs and have held Desmodus rotundus for a more than a decade each using the included procedures. The purpose of this poster is to demonstrate that very different approaches can be used to address the same need.

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