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

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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 The current caging at the Large Animal Isolation Facility is outdated and only approved for holding bears for up to two weeks.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.