Challenges in Microbial Quality Control for Nonhuman Primate

Abstract

In contrast to many other laboratory animal species, infectious diseases have proven difficult to eliminate from nonhuman primate colonies and various pathogens remain a threat to animal and colony health. Moreover, despite significant advances in the diagnosis of infectious diseases, unrecognized or adventitious agents are common in nonhuman primates and have the potential to confound experimental work. This issue of the ILAR Journal is devoted to microbial quality control for nonhuman primates and addresses a number of important concerns facing veterinarians and scientists who use such animals. The reason microbial threats have been difficult to eliminate from nonhuman primate colonies is likely multifactorial. The standard approach used in many other species to develop colonies free of specific agents has been to derive infants by cesarean section and raise them completely separated from the source colony. Such an approach has worked well with rodents and other species, but the critical role of parental input in normal primate social development has made it difficult to use this technique in a widespread fashion in nonhuman primates. Similarly, housing and breeding strategies that promote social interaction also allow the propagation of infectious agents, and significant numbers of primates are raised outside in large corrals or in a semiferal state (Figure 1). Although such environments are enriching for the animals, they complicate the control of infectious agents both between nonhuman primates and from wild animals that may be present in the environment. These factors are compounded by the animals’ relatively long life span in captivity and ethical concerns over euthanizing animals solely because of the presence of an infectious agent. Finally, several important pathogens including tuberculosis, measles, and Streptococcus pneumoniae are widespread in the human population and colonies are under constant threat of reintroduction of these pathogens from human contacts. Infectious diseases may adversely affect research pro