Oct. 29, 2012 Anywhere it wants. OK, they don't really
expectorate. So a Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing
(JHUSON) saliva expert has done a bit of improvisation. Now, few
humans would drool at the chance to swab the inside of a
quarter-ton sea lion's mouth. There's the fishy breath,
naturally. And did we mention the canine teeth? Gumdrops and
lollipops it isn't. Then there's Douglas Granger, PhD, Director
of the JHUSON's Center for Interdisciplinary Salivary
Bioscience, who sees studying the zoo animals as a perfect
opportunity to continue his groundbreaking research on how
saliva can signal stress, health risks, and illness in the human
body, and apply this research to endangered species as well.
Granger has partnered with Michelle Farmerie, MAIS-ZAL, who
chairs the Animal Enrichment Committee at the Pittsburgh Zoo &
PPG Aquarium, on a project to study through saliva swabs how
much stress animals experience from changes in their
environment, including when moved from zoo to zoo. The research
team h