Blood samples
For taking of blood
samples, use only of Ketaminhydrochloride is recommended because additional
tranquilizers can influence the result. Stress, caused by capture and restraint
without use of tranquilizers, can also influence results
67.
Obtaining of blood-samples from lorises and pottos with a syringe is difficult
15,
34,
possibly because of the
peculiarities
of blood vessels of the limbs. Blood samples can be obtained from the
jugular or femoral vein; the jugular vein is rarely visible or palpable,
localization is based on approximation and pulsations from the carotid
artery
61.
At Ruhr-University,
laboratory-bred blood-suckling bugs (Dipetalogaster maxima) are
used for taking blood samples. The lorises are allowed to enter a small
wiremesh cage with food and some cover (artificial plants) before the end
of the sleeping period and are enclosed in it by a shutter. They try to
escape from the cage for a few minutes, then calm down and sit down for
sleeping. In a compartment adjacent to the sleeping branch, separated from
the loris by wiremesh and very thin cloth against which the loris leans
during sleeping, a bug is hidden in a box from which it can be released
by pulling a thread after the loris has settled down, then comes out and
suckles blood through the cloth hiding it. By chosing subadult bugs of
a certain size, the amount of blood can be predetermined. The lorises,
even when still awake, do not notice that blood is taken from them. When
the bug is stout with blood, the loris is released through the shutter,
gets a titbit, and the bug can be caught for obtaining the blood which
is unchanged with exception of a slight aggregation of thrombocytes (Schaub,
pers. comm). Blood obtained in this way can also be used for taxonomic
purposes (Yves Rumpler, pers. comm.). Detection of a host by the bugs partly
depends on a temperature difference between host and environment; when
ambient temperature was too high, the bugs were not successful. A publication
about this method for taking blood samples is in preparation by Prof. Schaub,
Ruhr-Universität Bochum, he also provided the bugs for our study.