Balanced anesthesia in pigeons (Columba livia): a protocol that ensures stable vital parameters and feasibility during long surgeries in cognitive neuroscience

A Serir; J M Tuff; N Rook; E Fongaro; T Schreiber; E Peus; O Güntürkün; D Manahan-Vaughan; J Rose; R Pusch

doi:10.3389/fphys.2024.1437890

Balanced anesthesia in pigeons (Columba livia): a protocol that ensures stable vital parameters and feasibility during long surgeries in cognitive neuroscience

Front Physiol. 2024 Aug 1:15:1437890. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2024.1437890. eCollection 2024.

Authors

A Serir^#^{1

2

3}, J M Tuff^#^{1

4}, N Rook¹, E Fongaro⁵, T Schreiber⁶, E Peus⁶, O Güntürkün¹, D Manahan-Vaughan², J Rose^#⁵, R Pusch^#¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biopsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
² Department of Neurophysiology, Institute of Physiology, Medical Faculty, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
³ Department of Anesthesiology, Center for Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
⁴ Max Planck School of Cognition, Leipzig, Germany.
⁵ Department of Neural Basis of Learning, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
⁶ Pigeon Clinic Essen, Essen, Germany.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

In neuroscience, numerous experimental procedures in animal models require surgical interventions, such as the implantation of recording electrodes or cannulas before main experiments. These surgeries can take several hours and should rely on principles that are common in the field of research and medicine. Considering the characteristics of the avian respiratory physiology, the development of a safe and replicable protocol for birds is necessary to minimize side effects of anesthetic agents, circumvent technical limitations due to the insufficient availability of patient monitoring, and to maintain stable intraoperative anesthesia. Through the consistent and responsible implementation of the three R principle of animal welfare in science ("Replace, Reduce, Refine"), we aimed to optimize experimental methods to minimize the burden on pigeons (Columba livia) during surgical procedures. Here, surgeries were conducted under balanced anesthesia and perioperative monitoring of heart rate, oxygen saturation, body temperature, and the reflex state. The protocol we developed is based on the combination of injectable and inhalative anesthetic drugs [ketamine, xylazine, and isoflurane, supported by the application of an opiate for analgesia (e.g., butorphanol, buprenorphine)]. The combination of ketamine and xylazine with a pain killer is established in veterinary medicine across a vast variety of species. Practicability was verified by survival of the animals, fast and smooth recovery quantified by clinical examination, sufficiency, and stability of anesthesia. Independent of painful stimuli like incision or drilling, or duration of surgery, vital parameters were within known physiological ranges for pigeons. Our approach provides a safe and conservative protocol for surgeries of extended duration for scientific applications as well as for veterinary medicine in pigeons which can be adapted to other bird species.

Keywords: avian anesthesia; avian model; cognitive neuroscience; isoflurane; ketamine-xylazine; pigeon vital parameters; surgery protocol.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. OG, DM-V, JR and RP were funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), project number 316803389 (SFB 1280, projects A01, A04 and A19). JR and RP were further supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), project number 430157321 (SPP 2205). JR was supported by a Freigeist fellowship granted by the Volkswagen Foundation. In addition, this project was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Max Planck Society.