Background: In order to reverse the White-lipped peccary decline, besides protecting its habitat and controlling hunting, it is necessary a captive breeding program. There are reports, however, on the low fertility of white-lipped peccary, making it difficult its reproduction in captivity, making artificial insemination one of the main tools to prevent the loss of genetic diversity of species kept in captivity. Information on safe methods of anesthesia and the collection of semen should be investigated. Therefore, we aimed to compare the effects of the anesthetic protocols acepromazine/ketamine and xylazine/ketamine, as well as electroejaculation protocols, for semen collection in white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari).Materials, Methods & Results: Twelve adult male white-lipped peccaries were submitted both to the xylazine/ketamine and acepromazine/ketamine anesthetic protocols. The anesthetic induction time and duration, the degree of muscle relaxation, the time for anesthetic recovery and the quality of the animals’ recovery were evaluated. Additionally, the quality of the sedation was evaluated based on the animal’s behavior. We also evaluated the effect of drugs on erectile functions as well as the efficiency of three electroejaculation protocols with increasing or fixed voltages (2 to 4 V; 5 to 12 V; 12 V). The acepromazine/ketamine combination promotes shorter induction time, duration and recovery from anesthesia than the xylazine/ketamine association. There were no differences, however, between the tested anesthetic protocols in relation to heart rate, respiratory rate and temperature. Ejaculate was obtained from only 2 animals when using the xylazine/ketamine protocol and adoption of stimuli between 5 and 12 V, with 10 stimuli at each voltage. In turn, ejaculate was obtained from four animals submitted to the acepromazine/ketamine protocol, three of them with the adoption of stimuli between 5 and 12 V and one with the adoption of fixed 12 V stimuli, with 45 stimuli at this single voltage.Discussion: The animals presented less deep anesthesia and, consequently, worse indicators of well-being during and after the collection procedures when submitted to the xylazine/ketamine protocol compared to the acepromazine/ketamine protocol. When submitted to the acepromazine/ketamine protocol, the animals allowed the observer to approach and handle them, facilitating handling and collection of semen, in addition to promoting better indicators of animal welfare. Also, with this aforementioned protocol, the animals showed better anesthetic return. For both anesthetic protocols, the protocol of increasing stimuli from 5 to 12 V, with 10 stimuli at each voltage, resulted in penile erection and in obtaining ejaculate in a greater number of animals in relation to the other electroejaculation protocols. In turn, the use of the growing protocol 2 V to 4 V did not even cause an erection in any of the 12 animals. From the ejaculates collected from the white-lipped peccary, volumes (0.2 to 1.0 mL) and average sperm concentration (379.1 x 106 sperm/mL) were comparatively higher than those from Pecari tajacu. The white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) is considered an aggressive animal, and this characteristic can explain the relatively low success in obtaining ejaculates, as aggressiveness is directly related to stress, which is an antagonist of ejaculation. Thus, we proposed to test chemical restraint with the aid of a blowgun in future studies.

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A família Tayassuidae é composta pelas espécies Pecari tajacu, Tayassu pecari e Catagonus wagneri, apresentando distribuição no continente Americano. Conhecidas, respectivamente, como cateto e queixada, Pecari tajacu e T. pecari são onívoros e indicadores ambientais, encontrando-se em declínio populacional devido à perda de habitat, fragmentação e caça. Com o intuito de identificar marcadores cromossômicos que contribuam para o entendimento dos mecanismos de diferenciação cariotípica desses táxons, este trabalho realizou uma análise citogenética comparativa em P. tajacu e T. pecari, mediante às técnicas de impregnação com nitrato de prata (AgNO3) e Hibridização in situ Fluorescente (FISH). Amostras de sangue foram coletadas de sete (quatro fêmeas e três machos) e cinco indivíduos (quatro fêmeas e um macho) de queixada e cateto, respectivamente, provenientes de populações cativas na Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (UESC), Ilhéus/BA. Análises cromossômicas foram realizadas a partir da cultura de linfócitos do sangue, sendo as lâminas posteriormente impregnadas com AgNO3 ou submetidas a FISH com sonda de DNAr 35S (pTa 71), marcada com digoxigenina-11-dUTP. Pecari tajacu e T. pecari apresentaram números diploides 2n=30 e 2n=26, XX ou XY, respectivamente, classificando-se os cromossomos morfologicamente em dois grupos (meta/submetacêntrico e acrocêntrico), com a predominância de submetacêntricos em ambas espécies, similarmente ao descrito na literatura. A FISH revelou a presença de sítios de DNAr 35S em, ao menos, cinco pares autossômicos de P. tajacu: marcação proximal no braço curto do par submetacêntrico 2; marcação centromérica no par submetacêntrico 6; marcações nos braços curtos dos pares acrocêntricos 8 e 12, e do par submetacêntrico 11. Por sua vez, quatro marcações foram visualizadas em T. pecari, as quais mostraram-se ativas por AgNO3, identificadas na região intersticial do braço longo do par submetacêntrico 4 e no braço curto do par metacêntrico 8, adjacente ao centromêro, similar a estudos anteriores. Este trabalho relata a primeira descrição de sítios de DNAr para P. tajacu, cujo número elevado de marcações pode estar relacionado à maior ocorrência de rearranjos cromossômicos (inversões, fusões e fissões) durante a evolução cariotípica e diversificação desta espécie, em comparação a T. pecari, conforme sugerido por estudos filogenéticos com marcadores morfológicos e moleculares.

Both anthropogenic actions and abiotic parameters, such as rainfall, temperature and photoperiod, can affect fruit and flower availability for animals, which consequently affects nutritional status and thus animals’ health. Herein, we investigated whether abiotic factors are related to changes in fruit availability that can lead to changes in feeding behavior and, consequently, in endoparasite load and general health status in two groups of golden-headed lion tamarins (Leontopithecus chrysomelas) living in degraded fragments of Atlantic forest in Southern Bahia, Brazil. We detected that there was a high variation in availability of ripe fruits throughout the year, with lower availability occurring at the end of spring and beginning of summer. Despite this, there was no difference in tamarins’ general health status, body mass and blood counts between seasons. This is probably because during native fruit scarcity, the tamarins eat cultivated species, such as banana (Musa spp.) and jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus). Temperature and daylength were negatively correlated with golden-headed lion tamarin endoparasite loads. Contrary to our expectations, endoparasite loads are not linked to fruit scarcity and consequent changes in feeding behavior. Nevertheless, we found higher parasite diversity in the group of golden-headed lion tamarins that occupied the smallest home range. The smaller the area available, the greater the contact with parasites the animal will have, as they are forced to travel constantly along the same routes in the forest, increasing infection risk and re-infection rates. Our results highlight how animals’ health is associated with environmental health as well as the need for constant monitoring to ensure the effective conservation of endangered species, such as the golden-headed lion tamarin.