Data from: Changes in environment and management practices improve foot health in zoo-housed flamingos

Summary

This dataset accompanies the publication "Changes in Environment and Management Practices Improve Foot Health in Zoo-Housed Flamingos" published in Animals. This study tracked changes in foot lesions for an individual flock of Chilean flamingos (97 birds) at Dublin Zoo (Ireland) over an 18-month period in response to management and substrate changes .

Photos of each flamingo's feet were taken on May 6th 2021, when all flamingos had access to their outdoor habitat (Time Point A). Photos were taken again on 16th April 2022, following a six month period when the flamingos were restricted to their indoor habitat due to a Government order to prevent the spread of Avian Influenza (Time Point B). Final photos were taken on 9th November 2022, six months following the release of the birds back into their outdoor habitat (Time Point C). Further details can be found in the corresponding publication. 

Scoring was undertaken blindly by two independent and trained evaluators. These scores reflect the scoring metric developed by Nielsen et al. 2010, and include the four types of common flamingo foot lesion: hyperkeratosis, fissures, nodular lesions, and papillomatous growths. The independently calculated foot scores were subsequently compared, and in instances where the foot scores did not match, a consensus was sought between both evaluators to provide a final value for subsequent analysis. The data presented here reflects the consensus values used in the analysis. Discrepancies in the foot scores between both evaluators are reported and discussed in the corresponding publication. 

Description of the Dataset

One file is provided in .csv format. The file contains the following 11 columns: 

• Time_Point: The Time Point at which photos were taken (A = 6th May 2021, B = 16th April 2022, and C = 9th November 2022).   
• Animal_Identifier: An anonymous code used to identify individual flamingos (n = 97).
• Hyperkeratosis_Total: The total hyperkeratosis score for that flamingo at that Time Point (considering both feet).
• Fissures_Total: The total fissures score for that flamingo at that Time Point (considering both feet).
• Nodular_Lesions_Total: The total nodular lesions score for that flamingo at that Time Point (considering both feet).
• Papillomatous_Growths_Total: The total papillomatous growths score for that flamingo at that Time Point (considering both feet).
• L_Total: The total left foot lesions score for that flamingo at that Time Point (considering all types of foot lesion).
• R_Total: The total right foot lesions score for that flamingo at that Time Point (considering all types of foot lesion).
• Overall_Total: The total foot lesions score for that flamingo at that Time Point (considering both feet and all types of foot lesion).
• Sex: The sex of the flamingo (Male or Female) 
• Age: The age of the flamingo (Years)

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge and thank all Dublin Zoo staff and volunteers for their support and assistance throughout the project. Additionally, we thank Dr. Laura Kane for her technical assistance and support.   

Disclaimer

Despite our best efforts at screening the data for errors and inconsistencies, some information could be erroneous. 

Credit

If you use this dataset, please cite the corresponding publication:

Mooney, A., McCall, K., Bastow, S., & Rose, P. (2023). Changes in Environment and Management Practices Improve Foot Health in Zoo-Housed Flamingos. Animals, 13(15), 2483. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13152483