Clinic for Zoo Animals, Exotic Pets and Wildlife, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Zurich, CH-8057, Zurich, Switzerland,
Clinic for Zoo Animals, Exotic Pets and Wildlife, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Zurich, CH-8057, Zurich, Switzerland.
J Zoo Wildl Med. 2019 Sep;50(3):513-527. doi: 10.1638/2018-0228.
Foot problems are a common concern in elephant husbandry. Studies on this topic with sample sizes greater than 100 animals have only been carried out in North America. We investigated foot health of 243 Asian elephants () in 69 European institutions. During on-site visits between August 2016 and July 2017, standardized pictures were taken of each elephant's nails and pads. The pictures were analyzed with respect to pathological lesions (i.e. nail cracks, abscesses), care issues (i.e. minor abnormalities, which are easily resolvable with routine foot work), and pad structure. Of all analyzed nails and pads, 35.6% revealed varying degrees of pathological lesions, with minor nail cracks and overgrown cuticles with attachment to the nails being most frequently observed. The most lateral nail (N5) on both front feet demonstrated the highest percentage of pathological lesions, providing support to a separate study showing that the mean peak pressure of an elephant's foot occurs along the most lateral digits; however, this was not observed along the most lateral nail (N5) of the rear feet. Three (of 243) elephants did not show any pathological lesions in their feet. The most common issues requiring foot care were fissures in the nail sole. The structure of the pads was categorized in four grades reflecting the percentage of surface marked by sulci. These four grades occurred at nearly equal frequency. Pearson product moment correlations revealed no significant association between the frequency of care issues and pathological lesions per nail. Despite this finding, it may be prudent to implement husbandry protocols that could alleviate commonly observed pathological and care foot issues in captive Asian elephants. A standardized approach to evaluate elephant foot health will provide a more objective way to monitor responses to management and medical decisions and ultimately contribute to the overall wellbeing of elephants in human care.
足部问题是大象养殖中的一个常见关注点。只有在北美进行的样本量大于 100 只动物的关于该主题的研究。我们调查了 69 家欧洲机构中 243 头亚洲象的足部健康状况。在 2016 年 8 月至 2017 年 7 月期间的现场访问中，对每头大象的指甲和脚垫拍摄了标准化的照片。这些照片根据病理病变（即指甲裂缝、脓肿）、护理问题（即轻微异常，通过常规足部工作很容易解决）和脚垫结构进行分析。在所分析的指甲和脚垫中，35.6%显示出不同程度的病理病变，最常见的是轻微的指甲裂缝和过度生长的角质层附着在指甲上。前脚最外侧的指甲（N5）显示出最高比例的病理病变，这支持了一项单独的研究，该研究表明大象脚的平均峰值压力沿最外侧的趾发生；然而，这并没有观察到后脚最外侧的指甲（N5）。有三头（243 头中的三头）大象的脚部没有任何病理病变。最常见的需要足部护理的问题是指甲底部的裂缝。脚垫的结构分为四个等级，反映了有凹槽标记的表面百分比。这四个等级几乎以相等的频率发生。皮尔逊积矩相关分析显示，指甲上的护理问题频率与病理病变之间没有显著关联。尽管如此，实施饲养协议可能是谨慎的，这些协议可以减轻圈养亚洲象中常见的病理和护理足部问题。评估大象足部健康的标准化方法将为监测对管理和医疗决策的反应提供更客观的方法，并最终有助于在人类护理中大象的整体健康。
