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Material and Methods
A total of 8 zoos in 5 different European countries cooperated in a project on the evaluation of the
reproductive performance of the captive fossa population. Fourteen male and thirteen female
individuals were examined in spring and/ or in autumn. At the time of investigation all but six animals
(3.3) had reached the age of sexual maturity.
The animals were usually immobilized by the following protocols: i.m. injection of Xylazin (Rompun
TM
,
Bayer, 2.5-5.0mg/kg), Ketaminhydrochlorid (Ketamin
TM
, Albrecht, 10.5-20mg/kg) and Diazepam
(Valium
TM
, 0.5-1.0mg/kg) or a combination of Ketaminhydrochlorid (5mg/kg) and Medetomedin
(Domitor
TM
, 100µg/kg) or a mixture of Xylazin (2mg/kg) and Ketaminhydrochlorid (10mg) or a
combination of Ketaminhydrochlorid (2.6-3.1mg/kg), Medetomedin (27-30µg/kg) and Diazepam (0.1-
0.15mg/kg). Anaesthesia was maintained by the inhalation of Isoflurane (Isoba
TM
, ESSEX, 1.5- 3
Vol%) and Oxygen (1-2 L/min) applied by facial mask. If computed tomography (QXi MSCT, GEHealthcare)
was intended, an endotracheal tube (3.5mm Endosoft
TM
tube) was used to adjust the
anaesthesia so that the spontaneous respiration could be turned off during the scanning progress: any
movement had to be avoided to guarantee a high quality imaging with maximal resolution.
During anaesthesia, morphometric measurements of head-, rump-, tail- and footlength were taken.
External sexual organs (testes, os penis and os clitoris) were measured using a special sliding
calliper.
The internal genital organs were visualized using mobile ultrasound equipment with different probes
for either transcutaneous (DIASUS, Scotland, UK; 5-10 MHz, 8-16 MHz, 10-22 MHz) or transrectal
(Oculus CS 9100, Hitachi; 7.5 MHz) ultrasound. The ultrasonographic images were recorded on DVcassettes
, so that the measurements of the structures could both be taken during the examinations
with an integrated calipper system, and later on offline with the assistence of specific computer
software (analySIS, Münster, Germany).
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