Bristol Zoo Gardens is a conservation and education charity founded by Henry Riley, a local physician and is the fifth oldest zoo in the world. It first opened its doors on 11th July 1836 and has since helped to save 175 species from extinction through breeding programmes and has established over 30 field conservation and research projects globally.
Charlotte Day, one of the resident vets at the zoo tells us about a recent study they conducted with Jock, their 32 stone male silverback gorilla.
“Researching online I came across the BÜHLMANN Quantum Blue® faecal calprotectin test. This seemed ideal for our purposes because a lot of laboratories won’t take faecal samples from non-human primates due to the risk of zoonotic infection. Being able to perform the assay ourselves looked like the perfect solution and it seemed relatively straight forward.”