Modernizing a Shared-Use Large Animal Facility Supporting Translational Hibernation Research at UAF

摘要 阿拉斯加费尔班克斯大学(UAF)是一所阿拉斯加原住民服务机构，在冬眠方面处于领先地位 新陈代谢研究中心(TRIM)是美国国立卫生研究院的第一个眼镜蛇 美国支持的生物医学中心利用冬眠作为自然适应新陈代谢的模型 疾病、肌肉萎缩和缺血再灌流。除了较小的冬眠者也在设施中研究 在动物资源中心，美洲黑熊(Ursus Americanus)是体型较大的冬眠动物， 与啮齿动物相比，它们的生理和解剖学更接近人类，使它们成为理想的翻译模型 冬眠研究。 UAF拥有最先进的熊冬眠设施来研究新陈代谢抑制和对疾病的复原力 具有广泛的生理监测，并可以使用专门用于研究的MRI扫描仪 分子成像设备，但目前缺乏在夏季长期持有熊的笼子选择。这个 大型动物隔离设施目前的笼子已经过时，只被批准用于关押最多 两个星期。这防止了只有在仲夏才有问题熊的使用，因为当阿拉斯加 渔猎部(ADF&G)否则就会对它们实施安乐死，并使长期的 夏季控制实验和进入冬眠的研究是不可能的。拟议的现代化 大型动物隔离设施的实施将改善黑熊的福利，并允许长期夏季 实验，更好的研究质量，从而支持UAF教职员工、UAA合作者以及后 博士、研究生和本科生研究人员。 现代化将提供个人室内和自然室外区域的笼子，让更大的 丰富和锻炼的机会和灵活性，可以减少个体之间的攻击性的物种- 特定的时尚。这种现代化意义重大，因为每种浓缩元素都已被证明 减少圈养熊的压力和刻板印象，从而提高科学数据的质量 这些模型。这些现代化加在一起，将使UAF研究人员更容易获得夏季控制 用于冬眠研究的动物，并使UAF有可能收到更多来自 在每年的这个时候，阿拉斯加经常会发生人与熊的冲突。 UAF的冬眠研究设施支持五名由NIH外部资助的UAF教职员工，合作的NIH和 NSF资助UAA的教职员工，以及博士后研究人员、研究生的培训机会 翻译冬眠研究中的学生和本科生。

Summary The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), an Alaskan-Native serving institution, is a leader in hibernation research and houses the Center for Transformative Research in Metabolism (TRiM), the first NIH COBRE supported biomedical center in the U.S. utilizing hibernation as a model of natural adaptation to metabolic disease, muscle atrophy and ischemia-reperfusion. Besides the smaller hibernators also studied in the facilities of the Animal Resource Center, American black bears (Ursus americanus) are hibernators with size, physiology and anatomy far closer to humans than rodents, making them an ideal translational model for hibernation research. UAF has a state-of-the-art bear hibernation facility to study metabolic suppression and resilience to disease with extensive physiological monitoring, and with access to an MRI scanner dedicated to research in the Molecular Imaging Facility, but currently lacks caging options for long-term holding of bears in summer. The current caging at the Large Animal Isolation Facility is outdated and only approved for holding bears for up to two weeks. This prevents use of "problem bears" that only become available in mid-summer when the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) otherwise would have euthanized them, and making long-term summer control experiments and study of transitions into hibernation impossible. The proposed modernization of the Large Animal Isolation Facility will improve welfare for black bears and allow long term summer experiments, better quality of research and thereby support UAF faculty, UAA collaborators as well as post- doctoral, graduate and undergraduate researchers. The modernization will provide both individual indoor and natural outdoor area caging to allow greater enrichment and exercise opportunities and flexibility that can reduce inter-individual aggression in a species- specific fashion. This modernization is significant because each enrichment element has been shown to reduce stress and stereotypical behavior in captive bears and thus improves the quality of scientific data from these models. Together these modernizations will allow UAF researchers greater access to summer controls animals for hibernation studies and opens UAF up to the possibility of receiving more problem bears from ADF&G during the time of year human-bear conflicts often occur in Alaska. UAF’s hibernation research facilities supports five externally NIH funded UAF faculty, collaborating NIH and NSF funded faculty at the UAA, as well as opportunities for training of post-doctoral researchers, graduate students and undergraduates in translational hibernation research.