Due to advances in captive nonhuman primate (NHP) medical care, the number of geriatric chimpanzees (≥35-years old) is growing. With old age comes a variety of physical conditions, including arthritis, stroke, and mobility impairments. Programs aimed at enhancing the welfare of geriatric chimpanzees are now quite common, but there are few published empirical evaluations of the efficacy of such programs. The current study aimed to create, implement, and evaluate the effects of participation in a physical therapy (PT) program on physical health, mobility, welfare, and behavior. Nine chimpanzees with mobility impairments participated in personalized PT routines (using positive reinforcement training) twice per week for 5 months. Additionally, nine control chimpanzees (non-mobility-impaired, matched with PT chimpanzees on age and gender) participated in body exam behavior sessions (also using positive reinforcement training) twice per week. All chimpanzees were rated on 14 health, well-being, and behavior items, as well as level of mobility throughout the PT program. Chimpanzees that participated in the PT program showed significant increases in ratings of physical health, well-being, and activity levels across phases of the program. Furthermore, compared to control chimpanzees, PT chimpanzees showed significant increases in ratings of ease of movement. Because raters were not blind to physical therapy treatment, our results represent an initial evaluation of the program that may suggest that participation in the PT program has physical, behavioral, and welfare benefits. Assessments of novel geriatric-focused care strategies and programs are essential to further enhance the welfare of the captive chimpanzee population, which is currently comprised of many geriatric animals, whose proportion of the captive population will only increase.

中文翻译：

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圈养黑猩猩（Pan穴居动物）的物理治疗计划的实施和初步评估。

由于圈养非人类灵长类动物（NHP）医疗服务的进步，老年黑猩猩（≥35岁）的数量正在增长。随着年龄的增长，会出现各种身体状况，包括关节炎，中风和行动不便。现在，旨在提高老年黑猩猩的福利的计划非常普遍，但是很少有公开的经验评估此类计划的有效性。当前的研究旨在创建，实施和评估参加物理疗法（PT）计划对身体健康，活动能力，福利和行为的影响。9名行动不便的黑猩猩每周两次参加个性化PT常规（使用积极强化训练），持续5个月。此外，还有九只黑猩猩（非行动不便，与PT黑猩猩的年龄和性别相匹配）每周两次参加身体检查行为会议（也使用积极强化训练）。在整个PT计划中，对所有黑猩猩的14个健康，福祉和行为项目以及活动水平进行了评估。参与PT计划的黑猩猩在计划各个阶段的身体健康，幸福感和活动水平的评分均显着提高。此外，与对照黑猩猩相比，PT黑猩猩的活动自如程度明显提高。由于评估者对物理疗法并不盲目，因此我们的结果代表对该计划的初步评估，可能表明参与PT计划具有身体，行为和福利方面的好处。