Abstract

Radiography and cross-sectional imaging (CT and MRI) are now standard diagnostic imaging modalities in zoos and aquariums. The zoological community is dedicated to ensuring the highest professional level of veterinary care and welfare for the animals under their stewardship. Veterinarians, however, face continuous challenges in the evaluation of health and disease in zoological species due to the absence of adequate and freely available reference diagnostic images from healthy animals. Despite their advanced training, veterinary radiologists face similar challenges in providing consultations on zoo and aquarium species due to a lack of available reference data and imaging studies.

The digital nature of diagnostic imaging today enables easy collaboration and sharing of information. Currently, there is no centralized database or reference site for radiology images from zoological species. This project will establish the Zoo and Aquarium Radiology Database (ZARD) to create an innovative and collaborative centralized database to address these needs. This widely endorsed project will bring together six large zoological organizations that manage numerous zoological parks and aquariums, as well as numerous in situ conservation and field veterinary programs, to create a centralized database immediately populated with their collective 65,000 radiographic and CT/MRI studies.

The scope of the database will be extensive, with inclusion of many aquatic animal species. The database will contain cataloged images that will be accessible through a web browser interface. It will allow veterinarians around the world to easily query the database using search filters to retrieve anonymized studies. Veterinarians providing care for aquatic animal species can benefit from the development of this database by having access to reference studies to answer basic science questions and support diagnosis for individual clinical cases, or necropsy findings, while leveraging access to comparison reference studies. Additionally, aquatic animal veterinarians will have opportunities to contribute to the growth of this database by submitting reference studies for evaluation and inclusion. The functionality of this database, timeline of completion, user interface, and description of the opportunities to contribute studies, will be presented to maximize the usefulness of this resource for aquatic animal medical professionals.

Acknowledgements

This project was made possible, in part, by the Institute of Museum and Library Services Grant # MG-249218-OMS-21.