Elsevier

Experimental Gerontology

Volume 38, Issues 11–12, November–December 2003, Pages 1365-1375
Experimental Gerontology

Birds as long-lived animal models for the study of aging

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exger.2003.10.018Get rights and content

Abstract

Despite their high lifetime energy expenditures, most birds can be characterized as long-lived homeotherms with moderately slow aging. A growing body of research confirms the prediction that birds have special adaptations for preventing aging-related oxidative and glycoxidative damage. Nonetheless, biogerontologists have been slow to develop avian laboratory models. A number of domestic poultry and cage bird species represent either established or very promising animal models for studies of basic aging processes and their prevention, including degenerative neurobiological, behavioral and reproductive processes. Several kinds of birds have also been used in studies of cellular resistance to oxidative stressors in vitro. Results of preliminary studies on chickens and quail suggest that caloric restriction may extend the reproductive life span of hens, but its long-term effects on life span remain unstudied. Birds' innate anti-aging mechanisms may actually make them more suitable in some respects as models of longevity than short-lived laboratory rodents, and bird studies may ultimately reveal routes for therapeutic intervention in diseases of human aging and infertility.

Section snippets

Introduction: why use birds for aging studies?

Useful animal models for the study of aging should ideally meet one or more of three criteria: (1) specificity, the ability to directly address a particular research question or hypothesis; (2) generalizability, the extent to which findings can be applied to a range of animal species; and (3) feasibility, which includes such logistical considerations as costs and husbandry requirements for maintaining a given species or strain once criteria (1) or (2) have been met (Holmes and Austad, 1995a,

Bird are long-lived despite high lifetime energy expenditures

Birds belong to the class Aves, which consists of approximately 9000 species with a wide range of body sizes, life histories and aging patterns (Sibley and Monroe, 1990, Sibley and Monroe, 1993, Gill, 1995, Bennett and Owens, 2002). Most birds live longer (up to three times) than mammals of equivalent body mass. Even small hummingbirds and migratory songbirds often survive over five years in the wild. Some wild seabirds live over 50 years; many captive parrots enjoy life spans in excess of 75

Avian longevity is consistent with evolutionary predictions

Based on the robust positive correlation in warm-blooded vertebrates between body size and longevity, and an equally strong inverse association between life spans and metabolic rates, past zoologists hypothesized that life spans and aging rates in homeotherms were constrained by the ‘rate of living’ (Pearl, 1928, Rose, 1991). This generalization is clearly refuted, however, by the disproportionately long life spans of flying birds and bats (compared with non-flying members of their respective

Birds may have special adaptations for combating free-radical damage and glycosylation

Selection for prolonged somatic maintenance means longer life spans and slower aging. Although the mechanisms whereby organism accomplish this at the metabolic or cellular level are still unclear, there is growing evidence that slow aging is associated with lower production of ROS per molecule of oxygen consumed, or more effective defenses against oxidative damage to biological molecules leading to the accumulated morbidity from pathologies of aging. The diseases associated with senescence are

Most bird species exhibit slow to negligible age-related reproductive declines

The delayed aging typical of birds extends to slow reproductive aging in both sexes (for reviews, see Holmes et al., 2003, Holmes, 2003). Mouse-sized domestic birds like budgerigars and canaries have reproductive life spans up to five times as long as rats and mice (4–5 years, vs. 1 or 2); the 110-g American Kestrel (maximum recorded life span over 10 years) shows little reproductive aging for up to 7 years or so. In captivity under hospitable conditions, birds generally enjoy postreproductive

Caloric restriction improves reproductive performance in poultry

The aging-retarding effects of caloric restriction (CR) are a well-established paradigm in biogerontology (see Barger et al., this volume), and seem to apply to a broad range of animal taxa, including invertebrates as well as vertebrates. Reliable effects of CR typically include extended life span, delayed onset of aging-related diseases, sustained healthy metabolic and endocrine function, and delayed loss of reproductive capacity (for reviews, see Weindruch and Walford, 1988, Finch, 1990,

Avian telomeres are surprisingly long, but not clearly implicated in longevity or slow aging

There has been a great deal of interest recently in a possible relationship between telomere length and maximum life span in vertebrates, including birds, as well as aging-related changes in telomeric DNA sequences in tissues of individual animals. Telomeres, which are conserved nucleotide sequences essential for replication of linear chromosomes, have been shown to shorten with age in somatic cells of humans, and are implicated in cellular senescence in mice (Harley, 1995). Thus far, however,

Birds in the laboratory: likely candidates and special considerations

The best candidate species as avian laboratory models in most cases are small, domesticated birds in several different orders, for which husbandry practices are well established and maintenance costs nearly as economical as for laboratory rodents (for an earlier review of these and other considerations, see Austad, 1997) (Table 4). They include short-lived species, like the Japanese quail (maximum life span 6 years), and several popular pet species, like the budgerigar (a small parrot), and the

Acknowledgements

D. Holmes acknowledges the support of Biomedical Research Infrastructure (BRIN) grant P20RR16454-01 (National Institutes of Health) to the University of Idaho during the preparation of this paper. M.A. Ottinger acknowledges National Science Foundation grant #9817024.

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      Citation Excerpt :

      However, bats and birds have a substantially longer life span than non-flying mammals of similar body size (Fig. 1; Austad and Fischer, 1991; Prinzinger, 1993, Healy et al., 2014). On average, birds live up to four times longer than similar-sized mammals (Lindstedt and Calder, 1981; Holmes and Ottinger, 2003), and bats live 3.5 times longer than similar-sized, non-flying, placental mammals (Austad and Fischer, 1991; Wilkinson and South, 2002). The mechanisms underlying the relatively long life spans of birds and bats are associated with their enhanced capability for preventing oxidative damage to mitochondria and nuclear DNA (Costantini, 2008; Munshi-South and Wilkinson, 2010).

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