Episode 8 - Meerkats
Meerkats Jenny and Fatty live together with their offspring at London Zoo. As part of an ongoing preventative medicine programme and following research which found very high cholesterol levels in captive meerkats internationally, the veterinary team decided to test the cholesterol levels of our meerkats.
Cholesterol testing
The family group were brought to the animal hospital by their keepers where Zoo vet, Tai Strike, anaesthetised them one by one in order to take blood samples from each meerkat, which were then sent to the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) for analysis.
In the wild, meerkats usually have cholesterol levels of less than 10 (mmol/l). When the RVC’s clinical pathologist, Michael Waters, ran cholesterol tests on the blood samples, he discovered that the meerkats have cholesterol results in the 20s and even one as high as 30.
Veterinary scientists have shown that very high levels of cholesterol puts meerkats at risk of brain disease, as cholesterol can accumulate on the brain and this has been associated with the deaths of a number of meerkats in capivity.
Next steps
Meerkats often suffer from high cholesterol in captivity, which is typically caused by their diet. In the wild they normally eat invertebrates such as scorpions, millipedes, worms, and crickets which provide a much lower amount of dietary cholesterol than that typically found in many zoological collections. Due to the high cost and limited 
availability (the meerkats would need buckets and buckets of them!) it is very difficult to reproduce this varied wild diet in captivity.
The meerkats at London Zoo have been fed a mixture of fruit, vegetables and meat with occasional tasty locust and mealworm treats. The veterinary team consulted ZSL’s Scientific Officer, Andy Hartley, who has responsibility for assessing, and modifying where appropriate, the diets for all the animals at London Zoo and Whipsnade.
From the review of the meerkats’ diet, it was evident that the meat contributed a very high level of dietary cholesterol which produced the high levels found in the meerkats blood. It was agreed to introduce a nutritionally balanced pet food into the diet to try and bring the cholesterol levels down, as well as to ensure a correct balance of other nutrients.
New diet
The keepers made the changes to the meerkats’ diet and watched anxiously to see how they took to their new food, only to discover that they thoroughly enjoy their new food. The pet food comes in the form of pellets and so also forms a type of enrichment, encouraging natural behaviours in the meerkats, as they have to forage to find it.
The vets will continue to monitor the meerkats progress and will test their cholesterol again in six months.