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UVB exposure Dendrobates

45430 Views 166 Replies 26 Participants Last post by  parkanz2, 
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https://aark.portal.isis.org/researchguide/amphibian%20zoo%20studies/amphibian%20uv-b%20and%20vitamin%20d3.pdf


UV-B, Vitamin D3, and amphibian health and behaviour
Dr Robert Browne, Postdoctoral Fellow, [email protected]; and Dr. Francis Vercammen, Veterinary Officer,
Center for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Belgium.
Elfi Verschooren, University of Antwerp, Belgium.
Rachael E. Antwis, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester, UK.
We thank Richard Gibson, Chester Zoo, for his personal contribution on “UV-B boost”.
Browne RK, Verschooren E, Antwis RE, Vercaammen F. 2009. UV-B, Vitamin D3. AArk Science and Research.



For a review of the biology of Vitamin D3 and UV-B metabolism in amphibians see; Antwis RE, Browne RK. 2009.
Ultraviolet radiation and Vitamin D3 in Amphibian Health, Behaviour, Diet and Conservation. Comparative
Biochemistry and Physiology Part A154(2): 184-190.


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This document provides a short summary of the biological issues concerning studies of Vitamin D3 and UV-B metabolism in amphibians. We also present some simple experimental designs. There have been many effects on health of vertebrates in general attributed to poor Vitamin D3 metabolism. However, only two effects have been recorded in amphibians. One is the loss of calcium from the skeleton and skeletal deformaties generically called nutritional metabolic bone disease (NMBD).
The other, being the converse situation, is an overdose of Vitamin D3 and the consequent elevated plasma calcium levels that cause excessive calcification of the skeleton and heart siezure. Generally in captivity a lack of dietary calcium or Vitamin D3 is attributed to the common disorders of hunchback or rubbery legs. Often frogs not showing skeletal deformaties will still have little calcium in their bones, and perhaps reduced circulating calcium necessary for physiological processes.

There have been many effects on health of vertebrates in general attributed to poor Vitamin D3 metabolism. However, only two effects have been recorded in amphibians. One is the loss of calcium from the skeleton and skeletal deformaties generically called nutritional metabolic bone disease (NMBD). The other, being the converse situation, an overdose of Vitamin D3 and consequent elevated plasma calcium levels that causes calcification of the skeleton, increased myocardial excitability and heart seizure. In captivity generally a lack of dietary calcium or Vitamin D3 is attributed to the common disorders of hunchback or rubbery legs. Often frogs not showing skeletal deformaties will still have little calcium in their bones, and perhaps in their plasma. Approximately 20% calcium loss in bones can be detected on
radiographs and a loss of 35% can lead to rubbery legs. A shortage of calcium in amphibian metabolism results in lack of calcification of the bones – called nutritional metabolic bone disease (NMBD), and other health problems including lethargy, poor growth,and possibly poor reproductive success. Both anabolism and catabolism are involved in Vitamin D3 metabolism. Vitamin D3 is required for the transport of calcium from the intestine into the blood stream. Vitamin D3 can be acquired through the diet or by synthesis in the skin under the influence of UV-B. UV radiation is emitted by the sun as wavelengths ranging from 400 nanometres (nm) to 100 nm.

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parkanz2
Ed said:
Judy,
I'm not suggesting that everyone should switch over to UVB exposure or retrofit thier enclosures since we know that the frogs do okay on just the supplementation.
I'm adding it on a going forward basis since there are some issues that I think this may help resolve. I'm really waiting for decent LED's that have the correct activity spectrum to come down in price as that will be easy to add to the enclosures on a going forward basis.

Ed
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Have you thought much about mounting techniques for UVB LEDs when we finally get them? If you can get lenses for them (assuming the lenses don't filter out a significant amount of the desired wavelengths,) and they don't run too hot, I'd wonder if you could actually mount the LED so it protrudes through the canopy material which would eliminate filtering of UVB by various materials and the need for gaps/holes allowing fruit fly escapes.

Getting a bit ahead of things since we don't actually have access to any UVB producing LEDs but one can dream.
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parkanz2
Have you looked into the transmission of UVB through fiberoptic cable Motydesign? That's a very interesting idea.

Ed, can you possibly PM me some examples of the halogen bulbs you're speaking of? I've heard of this before but haven't seen much info. I'd also be unlikely to actually attempt it without a radiometer.
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parkanz2
Thanks for the post Brent. I'm excited because it can also be thermoformed... time to get out my old hot wire and get creative.
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parkanz2
Pumilo said:
Question for those using Solacryl. How do you get around the problems of bonding it to a glass viv or are you simply using all acrylic vivs?
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I just plan on using it for the tops and having it clip into the lip on aquariums or in a track. Are you thinking of sealing it so it will hold water as in the front of a tank?
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parkanz2
Are most bulb manufactures compliant when it comes to providing emission data? If you can get that data for a new bulb a meter still seems valuable even if you can't measure the energy of all wavelengths as with a photospectrometer. You could at the very least monitor the decay of the bulb as well as the penetration into the viv. This is assuming you can trust the manufacturer which is a different issue I suppose.

I still need to read more about the different meter models but I've been leaning towards the solarmeter 6.2 as well but as far as monitoring lamp degradation I wonder about the 5.7 model for a UVA + UVB reading as it's been shown that UVA is also involved in vit D3 physiology.
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parkanz2
It makes perfect sense Motydesign. The only problem is that very few hobbiests, if any, aren't going to want to buy a 5.7, 6.2 and a spectrometer. Can we settle for one piece of equipment and infer other information from that data based on manufacturer specifications?
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parkanz2
That would be great Ckays. Hopefully uvguide.co.uk gets their data back up soon as well, it seems like he does a very thorough job.
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