For those who missed it, please enjoy the recording of the talk below:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_zTk2nIl668IUIO1K0JkEqao7fjuV4tX/view?usp=drivesdk Dr. Divers, BVetMed, DZooMed, DZooMed, Dip.ECZM (Zoo Health Management, Herpetology), DACZM, FRCVS, Professor in Small Animal Medicine & Surgery and Zoological Medicine, may be one of the more well-decorated professors we have had speak to our group, but his presentation was extremely accessible and entertaining.
He started by introducing endoscopy. Endoscopy is the act of "looking inside" an organ or tissue through use of a camera, or, as was done in 400 BC by Hippocrates, a scope and a candle. Endoscopy is useful in diagnosis, surgery, research, and, perhaps not intuitively, conservation. UGA has been active in the endoscopy world, hosting several creative wildlife projects which included teams of researchers, doctors, ecologists, and veterinarians to answer questions about our natural world and endangered species.
As a great example of this, Dr. Divers helped complete an in-the-field female tortoise sterilization (ovarectomy) of 39 specimens for release on the island of Pinta. This was needed after thousands of goats eradicated the natural flora, decimating the many species that took residence in it. Those goats were exterminated through human efforts, and after the island came back into bloom, genetically inferior tortoises were needed to re-establish a chordata-friendly habitat. The surgeries, which could not be done in aseptic theaters as is done in veterinary hospitals, were completely reliant on good endoscopic technique by the veterinarians in order to cut out ovarian tissue still inside of the animals, thus preventing infection and cutting down on surgery time. These surgeries happened right before an important ecological survey of tortoise re-introduction, and was entirely successful.
Dr. Divers also mentioned that he performed rigid endoscopy on hundreds of turtles and tortoises as small as 10g - this helped researchers identify gender very early on in the animals' lives in order to optimize their ability to cultivate turtle eggs with ideal gender ratios. Endoscopy was the only way to go from a 50% to a 100% accuracy rate on gender prediction, and to troubleshoot egg cultivation and get it to an optimal temperature.
Farmed sturgeon is not gender-distinguishable until the fishes are 5, even 6 years old. On a specific project, a farm's sturgeon were 45% male, 50% female, and 5%...intersex! This was discovered by endoscopic gender identification by Dr. Divers and his team, who surveyed fish as young as 2 years old to get a 100% accurate gender reading. Without endoscopy, the intersex fish would not have been identifiable: they indicate the effects of environmental agents may have caused reproductive issues, which also implicate humans. Additionally, gender ID that can occur 3 or more years early saves producer and researcher money, as female fish are generally the most valuable.
The last example was of Dr. Divers' team troubleshooting a 95% mortality rate in gonadectomy procedures (reproductive sterilization) done in another group of sturgeon. With the use of an endoscope, which provided a minimally invasive way to remove reproductive tissue and avoid any infections or large surgical openings, the team changed the 5% survival rate to one of 95%.