In a large bird such as a bearded vulture, the loss of a limb is often fatal as the animal's inability to walk or fly would lead to death due to malnutrition.
So when 'Mia' the bearded vulture injured its foot when it got tangled in sheep wool it tried to use to build a nest, the bird's future looked bleak. Thanks to bionic limb reconstruction specialist Oskar Aszmann and his team at MedUni Vienna, however, Mia can walk again with two feet.
Aszmann has been working on surgical techniques to attach bionic limbs for humans in a procedure called 'osseointegration,' where the prosthesis is directly connected to a bone anchor to ensure a solid skeletal attachment. Now, for the first time, he and his team have managed to apply the technique to an avian patient.
"The bird made the first attempts to walk after just three weeks and the prosthesis was under full load after six weeks. Today the bearded vulture can once again land and walk using both feet, making it the first ‘bionic bird’," said Aszmann in a statement.
Image: S. Hochgeschurz, O. Aszmann et al/Nature
#bird #bionic #BionicLimb #foot #surgery #osseointegration #beardedvulture