Rollins Animal Health Center
Breaking ground on July 27, 2023, Zoo Atlanta’s Rollins Animal Health Center was designed to redefine standards of excellence in zoo animal medicine, state-of-the-art technology, research, and academic partnerships.
By the numbers:
- 16,000 square feet
- 10x the size of the previous veterinary facility
- Cost $22 million to build
Features:
- Laboratory
- Pharmacy
- Radiology room
- Surgery rooms
- ICU
- CT scan machine
- Interior and exterior animal holding dens
- Animal food preparation kitchen
- Five animal quarantine dens with dedicated care team member access and dedicated food preparation areas.
- Necropsy suite
- Veterinary Team offices
- Conference room
Providing exceptional medical care for animals requires a veterinary team with diverse skill sets.
Domestic Animal Knowledge
The Veterinary Team at Zoo Atlanta needs to be familiar with medicine in all types of animals, from domestic animals to the most exotic animals. Understanding different domesticated animals’ physiology allows the Veterinary Team to apply this knowledge to the diverse array of related animals at the Zoo.
Human Connection
Sometimes the veterinarians can consult human medical resources to make informed decisions for animals that are more closely related to humans. Primates, especially apes, can benefit from this. Some other examples:
- Gorillas with a cold take Robitussin,
- Mona monkeys take ibuprofen for arthritis
- Pregnant and nursing primates take prenatal vitamins
- Animals that need calcium supplements receive Tums or Viactiv
- Geriatric primates may received Centrum Silver multivitamins
- Pigs, turtles, hawks, and primates may take Cosequin for arthritis
Zoo Atlanta’s Veterinary Team supports conservationists in the field and educates the next generation of zoo veterinarians through collaborative partnerships.
Partnerships connect conservation, research, cultural, and educational institutions to achieve more for wildlife conservation than what each organization could do on its own.
While all accredited zoos provide top-quality animal care, Zoo Atlanta’s veterinary staff go several steps further to conduct and publish research to inform improved standards and methods of animal care.
For example, our staff has led the development of new surgical techniques and has creatively managed to document crucially important baseline information to describe what are normal and healthy parameters such as blood pressure in a non-anesthetized gorilla and orangutan.
Based on their reputations as innovators in veterinary medicine, our staff frequently are called upon to apply their skills to conservation matters in the wild involving diseases, such as persistent tumors in green sea turtles, or triage and rescue situations involving large-scale confiscations from the illegal wildlife trade.
The results of their efforts are published in major journals such as Journal of the American Veterinary Association and Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine so that veterinarians across the world can learn from their breakthroughs.
The Zoo’s academic partners include Agnes Scott College; Emory University; Georgia Institute of Technology; Georgia State University; Kennesaw State University; Morehouse College; The University of Georgia; University of North Georgia; Gwinnett Technical College; and Fort Valley State University.
Our partnerships with local universities benefit the animals at the Zoo and in the wild, as well as students and other professionals in the field who work and study in Atlanta. Formal zoo-university partnerships expand the scope of what we can accomplish through education. Many zoos focus primarily on K-12 programming and other guest-tailored education. These programs are certainly effective, but are limited to what can be understood by younger age groups, or processed in short periods of time. University-level education expands the scope of what can be learned at zoos, providing deep insights into conservation, biology, and veterinary-related fields not possible through traditional zoo programming.
Graduate students, in turn, bring their time, drive to learn, and additional funding to the partnership. These arrangements are time-intensive for both participating students and the overseeing Zoo team, but bring an intellectual stimulation and momentum that keeps zoos in the forefront of relevant fields.
Routine Care
The Veterinary Team performs routine medical exams on animals.
This is like when you go to the doctor for a physical or the dentist for a cleaning! Getting regular checkups and exams helps keep animals healthy, and these exams are also a great opportunity for us to collect baseline parameters on animals that facilitate health monitoring over time.
A complete physical exam includes body weight, determination of body condition, body temperature, eye exam, dental exam and cleaning, careful palpation of the limbs (gently squeezing all parts of them to make sure they are healthy) and abdomen, routine radiographs (X-rays), and auscultation (listening with a stethoscope) of the heart and lungs.
Preventative Medicine
The goal is to preserve and maintain the health of the patient.
This mentality is prevalent in zoological medicine since preventive medicine is the backbone of this field. Preventative medicine includes things like screening tests, vaccination against common illnesses, and quarantine procedures when animals move between locations. The Veterinary Team relies on the Animal Care Teams to keep them informed if an animal is displaying unusual behavior or any symptoms that could be a sign of an infection or an illness. Animal care professionals must keep a close watch since wild animals hide their illnesses to protect themselves from predators.
In zoo animal medicine, it is hard to discern how to treat an animal once it is sick. Since many of these animals are unusual, our veterinarians have to do extensive research and be creative when it comes to treating these animals. As a supplement, our vets use the knowledge available for the closest living relative to treat these animals. For example, to treat a zebra or an elephant, our vets look to equine medicine; to treat a pheasant we look to chickens, and for the giraffes we look to cattle.
The Role of Animal Care Teams in Veterinary Care
Animal Care Teams play a vital role in the health of the animals at Zoo Atlanta. They are responsible for monitoring the animals’ eating habits, behavior, and appearance. Deviations from the norm in any of these areas could be an indication that an animal requires medical care. Animal Care Teams aid the Veterinary Team by noting any unusual behavior and reporting it. They also use positive reinforcement training with animals to engage in behaviors that help them see and assess the condition of all parts of the animal’s body so that each animal is a voluntary participant in its own care. They make this a positive experience for the animals by using preferred foods as rewards.
Benefits of Training for Veterinary Care
In addition, the Animal Care Teams train the animals for certain procedures. This is crucial because it allows the Veterinary Team to check the animal without using anesthesia. Anesthetizing an animal can be risky and is therefore avoided when possible. Certain animals must be anesthetized to be examined, but not all, thanks to the Animal Care Team’s training efforts.
Some examples of trained behaviors that provide opportunities for animals to voluntarily participate in their own veterinary care:
- Presenting body parts up against the mesh barrier to be routinely examined.
- Opening their mouths so that their teeth can be checked.
- Stepping on a scale.
- Holding a body part in place and remaining still for vaccinations or to have their temperature checked with a thermometer.
- Blood collection
- Blood pressure measurement
- Abdominal and heart ultrasound
As the Animal Care Teams bond with the animals, the animals become more trusting of new behaviors that may be asked of them, which allows the team to train more complex behaviors like offering an arm for a voluntary blood pressure reading. These behaviors are similar to how you might monitor your own health at home: stepping on a scale, looking for any unusual bruising in the mirror, or using a thermometer on yourself.
Baby Care
The Veterinary Team uses a variety of methods to care for baby animals whose mothers are absent or otherwise cannot care for themselves.
- Formula and feeding: Finding the proper bottle size, nipple shape, and formula recipe for each animal, preparing the formula, and feeding the babies.
- Checking up on their physical health: Babies get daily, weekly and monthly physical exams that include body weight, determination of body condition, eye exam, dental exam, checking the transponder microchip, careful palpation of the limbs and abdomen, and auscultation (listening with a stethoscope) of the heart and lungs.
- Keeping them warm: Babies may lack body fat and therefore are less able to regulate their body temperature. In those cases, an incubator can help keep them warm.
Quarantine
Prior to coming to Zoo Atlanta, all animals’ medical records are evaluated to determine their current health. Depending on the species and the states they’re traveling between, specific tests or exams may also be required. If these preliminary evaluations and tests are clear, the animal comes to Zoo Atlanta. Every animal that comes to Zoo Atlanta must complete a quarantine period before they can be introduced to their habitat. This process is to ensure that the animal is free of diseases that could potentially spread to other animals here at the Zoo. It also provides the new arrival with time to settle into its new environment.
The minimum amount of time an animal needs to spend in quarantine varies. Generally, birds and mammals spend two to four weeks in quarantine, while reptiles and amphibians can spend up to three months or more in quarantine. Reptiles and amphibians can remain asymptomatic for longer periods when sick, or an illness can remain dormant for a significant amount of time before the animal starts showing any signs. Animals are released from quarantine when they are deemed healthy, and then they are introduced to their new environment.
Death
In the event that an animal dies, our veterinarians strictly follow the standard procedure of performing a necropsy. A necropsy is like a human autopsy, a postmortem examination to determine the cause of death, but for animals. If the animal is too large, the necropsy may be done at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine Pathology Service; smaller animals are taken to a dedicated room in The Rollins Animal Health Center for the procedure.
A necropsy usually entails analysis of tissue samples which are analyzed by a pathologist. We may also archive samples in a freezer for future reference to further the field of veterinary medicine. By maintaining this database, our veterinarians may be able to treat an illness before the animal is terminally ill, as well as develop a better understanding of these unusual animals. This database is available to all zoos and aquariums that are accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). This cooperation between zoos is essential to the health and understanding of all animals in human care, and animals in the wild.
If an animal’s quality of life is in significant and/or irreversible decline, the animal may be humanely euthanized to prevent further suffering. Our Animal Care Teams, veterinarians, and Vice President of Animal Care and Collections all participate in the decision. This decision is not made lightly, and it is never one-sided.