Recoverable Birds: Cryogenic Bone Bank of Wild Birds and Osteosynthesis Applications

MITECO

Pioneering project worldwide.
New bone and tissue bank to be able to offer bones and tissues to other centers that require it in the future of specimens of endangered species admitted due to trauma due to collision or electrocution. With 150 samples of 23 species.
New surgical medicine protocols based on biotechnology.
Use of cryopreservation techniques associated with specific surgeries and also unique given the irreversibility of the lesions.
This contribution will contribute to the training of other Spanish and foreign centres in biotechnology with application to traumatology and electrocutions.

Project

Line of action:

Drivers of biodiversity loss

Status:

Finalizado

Execution date:

2019

Background

In all wildlife recovery centers, a large percentage of admissions are due to human causes such as electrocutions, gunshots, collisions… In these cases, they are most often admitted with some type of fracture, due to the trauma received and their characteristic anatomy of the pneumatic bones.

The research and verification of current bone preservation techniques in human medicine have served to choose the most suitable protocol for birds and to be able to adapt it in detail according to the needs of these specific materials.

Thanks to this research work, the creation of a tissue bank focused on bone and cellular material, to be applied in birds of prey, an innovative treatment worldwide, became a reality.

Objectives

This project aims to reduce the impacts of infrastructures and human activities on protected bird populations, improving the prognosis of those who enter recovery centers with serious injuries.

Actions

Preparation of bone tissue for grafting.
Comparative study of bone implants.
Creation of a bone tissue bank.
Replication to other recovery centers
Dissemination and management of the project.

Results

The project “Recoverable birds: Cryogenic bone bank of wild birds and applications in osteosynthesis” lays, for the first time in the history of traumatology in birds, the technical bases to implement bone grafts in surgical actions. With this project, the methods of extraction, freezing of bone and their application in avian donors have been validated.

It has been possible to validate the freezing methods (150 stored samples of 23 different species) and their application according to the physiology of the bone and soft tissue lesion.

Project resources