At a zoo in Amsterdam, a southern ground hornbill has had its broken beak fully restored with two titanium 3D-printed prostheses — the first such procedure in the world, the website infohub.kz reports.
The male southern ground hornbill, which lives at Artis zoo, suffered a severe injury: both the upper and lower parts of its beak were broken. The bird was left with two stumps, which made it barely able to forage for food or groom its feathers.
To save the animal, zoo veterinarians joined forces with specialists from Utrecht University, the UMC Utrecht medical center and the company Amnovis.
The team built a precise 3D model based on a CT scan and the surviving fragments, then printed the parts in titanium. Surgeons carried out a unique operation, replacing both halves of the beak with artificial elements. According to zoo representatives, such a procedure — prosthetizing two parts of the beak at once — has never been performed before anywhere in the world.
The doctors' main concern was that the hornbill would not adapt to the artificial organ. However, the bird began using the prosthesis on the very day of the operation. The next morning it picked up a mouse from the ground on its own, and a few days later it returned to preening its plumage.
Veterinarians will continue to monitor the patient's condition to assess the durability of the titanium structure.