Lecture: Husbandry and medical care of a group of Indo Pacific Bottlenose dolphins by Dr Ana Salbany

Notes : Advances in the medical and husbandry field have contributed to the health and management of marine mammals under human care and in many countries government authorities provide strict guidelines to follow to ensure their well-being, including Dubai, under the EHS Marine Mammal Regulation of 2008. Cross disciplinary fields such as Veterinarian Science, Ethology, Physiology, Conservation and Biology have advanced the knowledge and care of the different species of cetaceans, pinnipeds, and other marine mammals and brought animal care programs to the standard they are today.(Brando, 2010)

Animal welfare and care is as much an obligation as a priority: from promoting high standards in the daily management of animals, to supporting and undertaking research to increase our understanding of the animal’s biology and behaviour.

During the talk I will be covering basic anatomy of cetaceans and how it limits the clinical diagnostics and how training techniques have made possible to access animal health through routine sample collections. I will also discuss the cetacean’s requirements in terms of nutrition, water quality and how preventive medical programs are designed to ensure their health care. As a final note I will be discussing how the knowledge acquired in human care populations can be applied to free ranging populations and provide a base for stranding responses in a region.

About the Speaker :Director of Veterinary Services and Laboratory at Dolphin Bay – Atlantis, since January 2010, Ana Carina Salbany makes up part of a team responsible for the Clinical and Water Laboratory and Animal Veterinary care and Husbandry at Atlantis The Palm, giving support to the marine mammal and fish collections. She graduated in 1997 with a degree in Veterinary Medicine and joined Zoomarine, an Oceanographic park in Algarve- Portugal in March 1999 where she started as the Responsible Veterinarian for a collection of marine mammals (cetaceans and pinnipeds) tropical birds, birds of prey, reptiles and fish. In 2000 she started giving her support ti the National Recovery Network for Marine Mammals (R.N.R.M.M), becoming the Responsible Veterinarian for the Southern Centre involved in the rehabilitation of Sea turtles, otters, cetaceans and pinnipeds.in 2001 assumed the Direction of WelfareDepartment, being responsible for the veterinary care ,nutrition and water quality. in 2008she extended her responsibility to two other marine mammal parks as a consultant Veterinarian : Mediterraneo Park in Malta and Zoomarine IT in Rome. Ana Salably is an active member of the international associations of aquatic animal medicine with which she has maintained regular participation, delivering several oral presentations as author and co- author.