Abstract
Abstract. The Department of Pathology was the first scientific unit established at the German Primate Center (DPZ) already in its planning phase. At that early time the planning of administrative duties was also necessary, including the financial framework of the laboratory equipment of the then-envisioned three departments of pathology, virology and physiology, in order to get the DPZ off the ground. Otherwise the functions of the Department of Pathology were both service duties and scientific evaluations. The service functions after the establishment of the DPZ included pathological, bacteriological and parasitological examinations/surveys and the veterinary care of nonhuman primates at the DPZ and other primate colonies. On an international level its service functions were reflected by the collaboration within the Office International de Epizooties (OIE, Paris) (Dollinger et al., 1996) and the Infectious Diseases Working Group of the European Association of Zoo and Wildlife Veterinarians, and the establishment of a bacteriological laboratory in Iquitos, Peru, at the request of the Pan American Health Organization. Parallel to those administrative and service duties to the DPZ and to international communities, the different scientific activities started, which in a pathology department always are a combination of service and research. They are documented by a total of almost 120 publications, including 3 doctoral theses and 116 publications by the author from 1973 to 1999; the most important ones are summarized in the following examples.
Highlights
Parallel to those administrative and service duties to the Deutsches Primatenzentrum GmbH (DPZ) and to international communities, the different scientific activities started, which in a pathology department always are a combination of service and research
In a last step to avoid the loss of that genetically valuable animal, a skin biopsy was forwarded to the DPZ
Echinococcus multilocularis, which is endemic in southern Germany and the adjacent parts of France and Switzerland, infected several macaques at the DPZ
Summary
This white-matter disorder observed in 16 captive born chimpanzees of different origins, ranging in age from 3.5 months to 21 years, is morphologically similar to periventricular leukomalacia of man. 1.2 Suspected Dermatophilus congolensis infection in a female orangutan of the Vienna Zoo. A 16-year-old hand-raised female Bornean orangutan came down with a vesicular dermatosis of the entire trunk and all extremities, followed by severe pruritus, alopecia, depression, general weakness and totally suppressed sexual cycles. At histopathology the characteristic signs of a cutaneous Dermatophilus congolensis (Actinomycetales, Dermatophilaceae) infection were clearly present; spiramycin treatment was suggested and subsequently employed. Taker, the pruritus had stopped, and the hair started to regrow; 2 months later the animal experienced its first menstruation in 2 years (Brack et al, 1997b). Morphologically clearly diagnosed and successfully treated, the infection could not be verified by cultivation of the actinomycetes, because sterile sampling would have required another use of general anesthesia in the weakened animal
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