Laboratory Primate Newsletter
Laboratory Primate Newsletter VOLUME 23 NUMBER 3 JULY 1984
Articles and Notes
Values and Ethics of Research on Animals, by N. E. Miller........1
How Radical Animal Activists Try to Mislead Humane People, by D. C. Coile & N. E. Miller........11
Tuberculosis -- United States, 1983........14
Experimental Infection of Chimpanzees with Lymphadenopathy-Associated Virus........16
Twin Stumptailed Monkeys Born in Laboratory, by A. M. Schrier & M. L. Povar........18
Managing Editor's Lament, by H. J. Shuman........21
News, Information, and Announcements
New Officers of International Primatological Society Elected........10
Video Tape Available on Animals in Research........10
Research News: Inner Ear Transplant Research........15
International Conference on Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome........15
Field Station in Portugal to Include Primate Research........19
News Briefs........20
. . . Animal Liberation Group Strikes Again; Charles River Prize to Held; MFA Cancels Toronto Demonstration; Wisconsin Primate Laboratory Renamed in Honor of Harlow
Primate Supply Shrinks ........22
New Primatology Series Announced by SUNY Press........22
Departments
Recent Books and Articles ........23
Address Changes........33
* * *
Neal E. Miller
The Rockefeller University
Main Points to be Made
In this talk, I hope to contribute to an understanding of the following points which we, as scientists and teachers, have a duty to help our students and the general public to understand:
1) How research on animals has been, and still is, extremely important in contributing to advances in medical knowledge that have enormously relieved both animal and human suffering. In spite of overwhelming evidence for such contributions, many antivivisectionists from the days of Pasteur approximately a century ago, right up to the present day, continue to deny such benefits. A pamphlet passed out by protesters in front of our meetings says that billions of dollars spent on animal research on cancer have not saved any human lives and that similar research by NIH has not conquered a single major disease. To misinform the public in this way is immoral. Many well-meaning people who love their pet animals are taken in by such cruel lies.
2) The very nature of basic research--exploring the unknown--means that one often cannot predict exactly what will be discovered and when and how it will be valuable. Many medical advances that have greatly contributed to the relief of both animal and human suffering were the result of increases in knowledge produced by research on animals that had no immediate practical goals in sight. Therefore, it does not make any sense to require that research that may cause animals to suffer cannot be justified by merely contributing to knowledge, but must be justified by a specific expectation for a sufficient reduction in human suffering. I maintain that the scrutiny for scientific value that we already have in the peer-review system is adequate. In 1982, 84% of the projects submitted to NIH were approved but only 33% were funded. This is rigorous screening. Any further required justification in terms of expected prompt, specific reduction in human misery is based on a failure to understand the often unpredictable ways in which basic biomedical research makes valuable contributions to human welfare. It is a waste of the scientist's time and the taxpayer's money.
3) The key ethical issue is the one that has been raised over the years by the more extreme antivisectionists, namely whether people have any right to exploit animals or to cause them to suffer in any way for any human benefit. But, if we don't have any right to exploit animals for research to relieve human suffering, we certainly have no right to exploit animals as pets, beneficial though that may be to lonely people. I shall elaborate on this obvious point which is conspicuously neglected by the radical animal activists who liken any exploitation of animals to racism. We also would have no right to eat meat, eggs, or milk, no right to build fences to prevent animals from destroying most of our crops, and certainly no right to hunt and fish. But how much support would radical animal activists get for legislation to prevent other people from all of these activities? Why is the biomedical research that has contributed so much to both animal and human welfare singled out for attack?
4) Milder versions of the extreme antivivisectionists' stand are that people have no right to perform any experiments that cause any animals to suffer, or to suffer beyond a certain point. But such a stand would prevent research on the very conditions that cause the most human suffering. I believe that it is profoundly cruel and immoral to prevent or to seriously hinder the research that is needed to relieve conditions that produce the most suffering by animals and by people.
5) A still milder view is that it is wrong to perform research that causes unnecessary suffering. I myself and all of the many colleagues whom I know certainly agree; we all should be alert to prevent any unnecessary suffering. For both scientific and humane reasons we should train our students to prevent any unnecessary suffering. The New York Academy of Sciences is sponsoring a special committee to coordinate and facilitate the activities that the various scientific societies already have, to insure that research on animals involves no unnecessary suffering (Sechzer, 1983, pp. ix-x, 222). I am a member of that committee.
It may not always be simple, however, to decide what is necessary and what is unnecessary. For example, how much of the taxpayer's or voluntary health organizations' money should be spent, and how much should research be slowed down to avoid the necessity for a relatively mild restraint to which the animals can be readily adapted?
Value of Research on Animals
Some Early Examples
Let us start with a bit of early history because the examples are easy to understand and, with the passage of time, the results have become perfectly clear.
A century ago, the sight of a dog frothing at the mouth and the cry "Mad dog!" used to strike terror into the hearts of people and cause the dog to be shot as quickly as possible. At that time, 15% of those bitten at all and 80% of those bitten in the head or face acquired hydrophobia, now called rabies, and everyone who contracted it died! Pasteur found that he could inoculate this disease into monkeys and pass it from one monkey to another, and that when he did this it became progressively weaker, which enabled him to develop a vaccine. He furnished the scientific commission, established by the French government, with 23 vaccinated dogs. These and 19 unvaccinated ones were all inoculated from rabid animals. Fifteen of the 19 unvaccinated dogs died, but only one of the 23 vaccinated dogs died and it died of diarrhea. As the result of these animal experiments, the Pasteur treatment for human rabies was developed and, of the 55,000 early cases of dog bite given the Pasteur treatment, the number of deaths was reduced from the previous 15% to less than 1%--a saving of approximately 7,700 lives. But, in spite of this overwhelming evidence, Mr. Stephen Coleridge, the most prominent antivivisectionist in England, wrote: "The Pastuer Institutes in Paris and elsewhere have entirely failed to prevent people dying of hydrophobia" (Keen, 1914, pp. 20, 265). And now, rabies, which once caused dogs to suffer terribly, virtually never occurs in developed countries where their vaccination is required. Many thousand times more animals have benefited than the relatively few caused to suffer in Pasteur's experiments.
At about the same time, Koch proved that a specific type of bacteria caused the then dreadful disease of tuberculosis. First, he showed that the bacteria could always be found in patients suffering from the disease. But this infection could have been a secondary result of the weaknesss caused by tuberculosis rather than the primary cause. Therefore, a second step was needed, namely, that a condition closely resembling the human disease could be produced by inoculating the bacteria into a suitable animal. And third, that the specific bacteria could be isolated from animals so infected. Passage of the disease through a longer succession of animals made the proof utterly convincing. These steps, called Koch's Postulates, became the classical way of establishing the remarkable fact that a large number of specific diseases are caused by specific bacteria.
Work of the foregoing kind established the germ theory of disease. Ingenious experiments by Pasteur and others, which could be performed with culture media in glass containers rather than with the animals required for the foregoing work, refuted the theory of spontaneous generation and showed that bacteria could come only from other bacteria. The combination of both types of the foregoing experiments laid the basis for sanitation and for sterile techniques.
Before Lister introduced sterile techniques, serious wounds required the amputation of the arm or leg and were accompanied by weeks of horrible infection producing cupsful of foul-smelling pus, and frequently, when the places where blood vessels were tied rotted, there was disastrous bleeding. Many of the patients died. Any wound that pierced the intestine was a virtual sentence of painful death.
Impressed by the work of Pasteur and others, Lister changed all of this by introducing sterile techniques into surgery. One of his procedures was to sterilize in a solution of carbolic acid the silk threads used to tie off arteries. He tried this out first on the great blood vessel in the neck of a horse. The operation was a success. Later he substituted catgut for silk with even greater success, having tried out this procedure first on a calf. Dr. Keen, a surgeon who lived through the years before and after Lister, has described the changes produced by Lister's techniques as follows: "While the patient made a smooth and speedy recovery without complications, the surgeon slept the uninterrupted sleep of the just, secure against wearing anxiety on account of sudden hemorrhage or insidious infection. The heart-breaking tragedies which often made the surgeon wish he were a hod-carrier or even in his grave are by now but specters of a horrid past" (Keen, 1914, p. 2111).
Yet when Lister sought to improve his techniques still further and experiment with other types of sutures, the activities of the antivivisectionists forced him to leave England and do this work in France! While this work, which so greatly contributed to the relief of human and animal misery by laying the foundation for modern surgery, was being impeded by the antivivisectionists, those who shot foxes and birds for nothing better than pure sport were not forced to leave England to do their hunting in France. And a similar ironic contrast exists today. Shooting a few deeply anesthetized dogs and pigs to find a better way to save the lives of our soldiers who are wounded with new high-velocity weapons recently aroused emotional protests. False and misleading information was publicized. A barrage of phone calls was organized. Legislators were persuaded to write letters to Secretary of Defense Weinberger. Against the advice of his Science Advisor, he immediately ordered the work to be stopped. The Pentagon announced that no dogs would be shot "as long as Casper Weinberger is Secretary of Defense" (Washington Post, July 28, 1983).
As a veteran who spent four years in the army during World War II, I deeply resent seeing radical animal activists being able to convince some Congressmen to get other legislators to demand the stopping of research that will save the lives of our wounded soldiers fighting for our country. I believe this is inhumane, cruel, and unpatriotic, as is the Pentagon's caving in to such pressure.
Another major contribution to surgery was the discovery of local and general anesthetics whose effects were first demonstrated by experiments on animals. Thanks to them, the vast majority of experiments on animals and operations on animals and on people now can be conducted without causing any pain.
Continuing through today, the advances in surgery--operations to save the lives of "blue babies," transplants of kidneys, livers and other organs, replacement of arthritic hips and knee joints, coronary bypass operations, the use of laser beams--all had to be developed first by experiments on animals. And experiments that will relieve the suffering of future generations are continuing, but coming under increasing attacks leading to attempts at legislation that will slow their progress and increase their expense. By needlessly prolonging human and animal suffering, giving in to such attacks is inhumane and cruel.
Some Lessons from the History of Antibiotics
Since research, especially the pioneering research that results in new discoveries, involves exploring the unknown, one cannot be certain what one will find. Before they start the work, investigators cannot tell for certain whether they are entering a blind alley or a path that will lead to success. This is illustrated by the development of antibiotics. Syphilis was a dreadful disease. Patients in its final stage, called paresis, characteristically suffered from grotesque delusions of grandeur and persecution. They used to account for about 20% of those confined to mental hospitals. Now such cases are extremely rare. After Metchnikoff succeeded in inoculating syphilis into apes and other animals, experiments became possible. These soon resulted in the discovery of the spirochete (an animal somewhat larger than bacteria) that was responsible. To combat this organism, Ehrlich had the idea of combining a dye that would specifically stain that animal with a poison. After 605 attempts that were failures because compounds were either ineffective or too poisonous, he discovered that the 606th one, Salversan, was both effective and relatively safe. In summarizing this work, Keen (1914) says: "In seven years, experiments on animals did more for alleviating human misery from this one disease than clinical observation on man had done in over four centuries."
Ehrlich's work spurred a burst of other attempts to kill infectious agents, but there were so many failures that the strong belief developed that any substance poisonous enough to kill bacteria would necessarily have an even more harmful effect on human tissues and therefore retard rather than aid healing. Thus, when in 1928 Fleming discovered that a mould was killing the bacteria in one of his cultures, he was strongly discouraged by his superior from following this up. And in spite of some experiments that should have been convincing to any impartial judge, he was unable to get money to hire a biochemist to help him to refine penicillin, which we neglected for 10 years until the discovery of the antibacterial effects of sulfanilamide encouraged Florey and Chain to resume the work. The success of these two drugs led to a new spurt of research and the discovery of other antibiotics, the safety of which had to be tested on animals which necessarily suffered if the new antibiotic was too poisonous, as most of them were. The successful antibiotics gave doctors the chance for the first time to cure many more animal and human diseases. When Calvin Coolidge was President of the United States, his son got an infection in a blister on his foot. This developed into blood poisoning which killed him in spite of the best medical care that this country could supply then. Now virtually no one dies of blood poisoning.
There are two lessons from this history of antibiotics: 1) We should be humble about our ability to predict that a given type of research that is competently conducted and yielding results is likely to be worthless; 2) in research, one must expect that a large number of experiments will turn out to be failures, but the rare successes that lead to significant practical applications are important enough to pay for all of the failures many times over. But one cannot tell in advance which experiments will fail.
The Battle Against Mental Disease
It is hard for anybody who was not there then to imagine the horrible conditions in the back wards of many overcrowded, under-financed, large mental hospitals. There was a nauseating stench of urine and feces, and screams of animal rage, sheer panic, and despair! Patients beat each other or attacked attendants. Some patients had to be completely restrained for hours in strait jackets or by being wrapped tightly in wet sheets. Others spent hours motionlessly staring into space. Schizophrenics were considered hopeless, certain only to get worse and never to return to their loved ones.
The revolutionary changes produced by chlorpromazine and other tranquilizers and antipsychotics, which in turn allowed psychotherapy and other humanizing changes to be introduced, have been described by Overholser (1956): "The atmosphere of disturbed wards has been completely revolutionized. The patients now remain clothed; they are quiet; they do not annoy each other; they conform to the conventions; take an interest in their personal appearance and in the appearance of the ward." Many schizophrenics can be released to return to their loved ones and function in the community. (Unfortunately, some others, less able to cope, have been turned out on the streets.)
In order to find out what led to the discovery of the drug chlorpromazine, which was responsible for so much of this change and whose beneficial effects had been decisively demonstrated by double-blind studies in which neither the staff administering the drug and observing the changes nor the patients knew who was getting the drug and who was getting a sugar pill, the Brain Sciences Committee of the National Academy of Sciences commissioned a historian of science, Dr. Judith Swazey, to study the steps that had led to the discovery of this drug. Although the study was not aimed at that purpose, Swazey's (1974) book makes clearly evident the role of experiments on animals, some of them behavioral experiments and some of them necessarily causing a few animals to suffer (Miller, 1983a).
Other points that Dr. Swazey's study emphasizes are the unpredictability of the course of the research that led to such immense benefits and the time-consuming sequence leading to the pay-off that was worth many times the cost of the work. To quote from the Foreword by an eminent brain scientist, Seymour Kety: "We can thus compare with the wisdom of hindsight, what we know to have been relevant with what would have been considered so at the time. One conclusion, immediately apparent and rather surprising, is that none of the crucial findings or pathways that led, over the course of a century, to the ultimate discovery of chlorpromazine would at first have been called relevant to the treatment of mental illness by even the most sophisticated judge."
There are many other benefits from behavioral experiments on animals. Research on animal learning, starting with experiments by Thorndike (1898) which were not aimed at any clinical problem, led directly over the years to the development of techniques of behavior therapy that have been useful in treating conditions such as phobias and compulsions and that are now being applied in an increasing range of medical situations such as pain clinics and rehabilitation centers (Ince, 1976; Miller, 1983b; Pomerleau & Brady, 1979). A few of these experiments used electric shocks, but the vast majority did not involve any suffering.
Although significant gains have been, and are continuing to be made in the battle against mental diseases, additional work is needed to increase our understanding of, and our ability to prevent and cure, the catastrophic behavioral problems that they can create. For example, chlorpromazine and the other drugs for treating schizophrenia are most successful in treating its active symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions and violent behavior; their prolonged use also can produce undesirable side effects such as uncontrollable movements. The tranquilizers are much less successful in reducing the deficits, such as emotional blunting, interpersonal withdrawal, apathy, and loss of initiative. We badly need ways of counteracting the latter to produce a more complete cure. Experiments on such complex forms of behavior cannot be carried out on bacteria or on tissue cultures, although the results of the latter can help to lay a better foundation for certain types of behavioral research.
A Monumental Study
In the broad area of pulmonary and cardiovascular medicine, Comroe and Dripps (1977) asked a panel of 90 knowledgeable physicians and surgeons to select the top 10 clinical advances that had saved or greatly prolonged the lives of their patients, prevented disease, or greatly decreased suffering or disability. They selected open-heart surgery, blood vessel surgery, treatment of hypertension, management of coronary artery disease, prevention of poliomyelitis, chemotherapy of tuberculosis and acute rheumatic fever, cardiac resuscitation and cardiac pacemakers, oral diuretics (for the treatment of high blood pressure and of congestive heart failure), intensive care units, and new diagnostic tests. Then Comroe and Dripps made an intensive survey of the literature, selecting 663 key articles describing the research essential for these 10 major clinical advances and analyzed the work that they represented. Although their study does not attempt specifically to pull out the role of animal research, reading it clearly indicates that such research played significant roles at multiple points in the paths leading up to each of the 10 major clinical advances. Furthermore, among their specifically listed findings, the following quotation is especially pertinent to a point I have been making: "Of the 663 key articles essential for 10 major clinical advances, 41.6% reported research done by scientists whose goal at that time was unrelated to the later clinical advance; 41.6% thus sought knowledge for the sake of knowledge." Who were the inhumane and cruel ones--the scientists who performed the research that led to the 10 major clinical advances that have relieved so much human suffering or the antivivisectionsts who tried to mislead well-meaning people who love animals into stopping such research?
Have New Techniques Made Animal Research Obsolete?
We have shown the great contributions that research on animals have made to the medical progress that has enormously reduced both animal and human suffering. We have shown that these benefits often occur in ways that could not be predicted in advance and sometimes only after a long chain of developments. In the case of chlorpromazine, this chain extended throughout a century. In spite of this overwhelming evidence, much of the antivivisectionist propaganda for many years has continued to deny any such contributions. In addition, it is now asserting that the development of new techniques, such as bacterial and tissue cultures and computers are making animal research obsolete.
I have consistently taught my graduate students to be alert for the possibilities of new techniques that allow one to do something that has been impossible before. The use of such techniques often has led to rapid advances in science by the people who first use them. Thus, research scientists have every reason to be strongly motivated to exploit every new technique. As a result of a larger proportion of effort devoted to new techniques, the number of animals used in research is declining. Drug companies have a strong motivation to use tests on bacteria or tissue cultures wherever possible. A typical test for the mutagenic effect of a drug, indicating a danger that it will produce cancer, costs approximately $500,000 if performed on rats or mice and only $2,000 if performed on bacteria--certainly drug companies do not need any greater incentive than this huge difference in cost--only 1/250th as much! But there are a number of reasons why the reactions of an intact mammal may be different from those of a tissue culture or bacteria. For example, a chemical may be concentrated in a specialized type of cell in a mammal where it does crucial damage. Furthermore, in trying to get rid of a drug, the liver may break it down into a new compound that is far more damaging. Finally, any damaging effects that the drug may have on the integrated action of the nervous system and glands and on behavior may require the intact animal to show up.
A computer is a machine for processing information. Its answers are no better than the information that it receives. In a vast number of cases, we do not have nearly enough information to allow computers to solve new biomedical problems. To get such information will require many more experiments on animals. Computers are useful in making predictions about the weather, but only if they have detailed information about temperature, pressure, winds, etc. from a large number of weather stations. To say that computers can substitute for research on animals is about as sensible as saying that they can substitute for weather stations. Computers are useful and, if used intelligently, may in some cases reduce the numbers of animals needed, but they are an extremely long way from being able to substitute for all animal research.
It is amusing that the same antivivisection pamphlet often will say that our closest animal relatives are so different from people that none of the experiments on these animals can be generalized to people and, furthermore, that bacteria and assemblies of silicon chips are similar enough to people so that information from them can be safely generalized to people and thus make experiments on animals unnecessary.
The Ethical Choices
Now that we have seen the incontrovertible value of animal research, let us face the key moral issues raised by antivivisectionists.
Equal Rights: No Exploitation of Animals
For years, the radical leading edge of the antivivisectionist, animal welfare, movement has asserted that people have no right to exploit lower animals. More recently, they have called such exploitation speciesism and tried to equate it with racism. They assert that animals have rights equal to those of people and that no possible anticipated human benefits can justify exploiting animals in any way and especially not by using them as subjects for biomedical research.
First let me point out that our favorite pets, dogs and cats, do not follow any such rule. Dogs exploit other animals, such as deer and woodchucks, by hunting and eating them. Cats kill birds and mice. Then let me point out what a consistent application of the equal rights, speciesism idea would involve.
One obvious implication is that we should not eat meat, eggs, or milk, wear leather shoes or furs, or sleep with down bags or pillows. Killing animals for such purposes obviously is exploitation. If animals have equal rights, we should not kill those who destroy our crops nor even fence in our fields to keep them out--changes that, if universally forced by legislation, could precipitate a major crisis of starvation in the world. We even should not starve or poison the rats that, if left to multiply freely, could cause outbreaks of typhus and bubonic plague.
In fairness, it should be said that many radical animal activists are vegetarians and follow a number of these implications of their doctrine, although they are practical enough not to push for legislation to force all of us to stop eating meat or milk because other sources of protein have been proved to be adequate substitutes. They concentrate on the animal research which, as we shall see, is a minuscule part of the exploitation they should consider to be immoral.
But there is one clear implication of their position that Peter Singer and the other radical animal activists gloss over because to clarify it would lose them the support by petitions, demonstrations, and money from the many animal lovers whom they try to lead. Speaking of money, the endowment of the Massachusetts Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is $42,100,000; its income from various sources in 1980 was over $10,000,000. Not long ago, the radical animal activists tried to pack a meeting and gain control of the New England Antivivisection Society, which has a budget of over $1,000,000 a year. They failed, but vowed to try again.
The implication of the position that animals have equal rights that the radical activists gloss over is that the use of animals as pets is speciesism, exploitation and hence immoral. Let me be perfectly clear: my children and I have loved a number of dogs and cats as pets and, as a psychologist, I am aware of how therapeutic they can be for lonely people. Yet, if you are going to give animals equal rights and equate speciesism with racism, what would you think of the morality of taking people with a certain color of skin and breeding them for certain qualities, such as docility, pug noses, bulging eyes, or long narrow heads, that were useful or amusing to you, and thus altering their genetics until they were no longer able to exist without you in a natural environment? This is what we do to our pets. Furthermore, we deprive many of them of normal sex lives and neuter them, which is a polite word for castration, so that they will not inconvenience us by having too many offspring or by marking our furniture with the scent of their urine or by departing on excursions in search of a mate. From the point of view of their natural species-specific activities, we keep many of them in an extremely impoverished environment and make them dependent on us for food, water, and companionship. These are conditions analogous to those used in brain-washing so that, as would not be true in their natural environment, we become highly important in their lives. These conditions are particularly extreme in city apartments, especially if the people are absent most of the day. Is not this speciesism--exploiting animals for human pleasure? Why are the radical animal activists not zealously pushing for legislation that step-by-step progressively restricts and complicates our ability to have animals as pets with the ultimate goal of completely abolishing this privilege?
Let me be clear, I have no objection to the humane use of animals as pets. I am only pointing out what the logical implications are of the animal activist speciesism, animal rights, position.
In other respects, the goals of certain leaders of the radical animal activists are not narrow ones. Richard Morgan, the National Coordinator for the Mobilization for Animals which organized the 1983 demonstrations against Regional Primate Research Centers, has written: "Agitation for animal rights is part of a revolutionary process aimed at restructuring the major institutions of society."
It frightens me that activists with such revolutionary views can have enough influence to stop research in military laboratories that may save the lives of our soldiers fighting for our country.
Incidentally, if one accepts the dubious premise of the radical activists that animals have equal rights with people, the logically inevitable conclusion is that any veterinarian who puts an old, sick or unwanted pet to sleep should be prosecuted for murder. Humane societies put 10,000,000 dogs and cats to sleep each year.
No Suffering, or None Beyond a Certain Point
Two less radical positions are that it is permissible to use animals in research but only if no suffering is involved or if suffering of certain types defined as extreme are strictly avoided.
First it should be pointed out that the vast majority of experiments on animals do not involve suffering--either they use procedures that are benign or surgical anesthesia is used to eliminate any pain. There are no exact data on rats and mice but, according to a Federal Report (Animal Welfare Experiments in FY 1982) on other animals, in less than one out of ten experiments is suffering necessary because preventing it would be incompatible with the goal of the research.** In the examples I have given, I have deliberately emphasized such suffering as was necessary in the research that has produced such great benefits to animals and man.
As a clear example of necessary suffering, the drugs that are poisonous enough to kill cancers also temporarily damage normal parts of the body. Therefore, the treatments for certain cancers cause patients a transient period of great distress. The strength of this suffering may be judged from the fact that a few of the patients with a particular type, testicular cancer, choose to discontinue the treatments that have a high probability of completely curing them even though they know that stopping the treatments means that they are virtually certain to die soon. The research that is necessary to discover and test drugs of this kind must cause animals similar suffering; in fact, many of the new drugs tested are likely to be worse--more poisonous to some vital organ at doses that are less poisonous to the cancer. We already have seen that there is an extremely strong financial incentive for scientists and drug companies to substitute bacterial and cell cultures to the extent possible, and also why tests on the intact animal are necessary.
Leukemia, a cancer of the blood, is the single disease that kills the most children between the ages of 3 and 14. It causes great suffering, not only to those whom it kills but also to their parents who carry the pain of the loss of their child with them for the rest of their lives. Treatment with cancer-killing drugs has reduced deaths of children under 10 from this disease by over 40%. By stopping the research that has enabled this progress, would you like to have sentenced thousands of children to death? By stopping the research that eventually is likely to reduce the death rate of many of the remaining 60%, would you like to sentence many thousands of future children to death? I believe that to do so would be profoundly immoral, inhumane, and cruel!
Since 1900, yearly deaths per 100,000 people from what were then the 10 leading killer diseases have been reduced from 580 to 30! With the conquest of killer plagues, the role in health of behavioral factors, such as stress, are becoming much more important (Miller, 1983a). For example, experiments on animals have shown that stress can decrease the effectiveness of the immune system, produce high blood pressure, precipitate sudden death, and produce physiological and behavioral changes like those in the mental depressions that are so distressing that they frequently drive the people who have them to suicide (Miller, 1980).
Pain--from cancer, from other diseases, from burns and injuries, from headaches, back problems and arthritis, to mention only a few of the sources--is one of the most serious remaining medical problems. It is a puzzling and complex problem with significant psychological components. The most effective pain-relieving drugs that we have are addictive.
But one cannot do the experiments that illuminate the causes of and discover cures for pain and for the effects of stress without causing some animals to suffer. And because of the remarkable ability of the body to compensate for mild pains and stresses, some of the most important effects do not show up at low levels; the effects are markedly non-linear. For this and other reasons, setting a limit on the degree of suffering that may be produced in an animal experiment is likely to halt the understanding, prevention, or cure of the very conditions that produce the greatest animal and human suffering. Would this be humane?
Why So Much Agitation About a Tiny Part of the Problem?
In 1982, 1.5 million warm-blooded animals were used in research, excluding rats and mice. Approximately 4.5 million rats and 11 million mice were used (personal communication from W. C. Stewart, Senior Staff Veterinarian, U. S. department of Agriculture). In contrast, 59 million dogs and 42 million cats were owned as pets, and at least 10 million are killed by humane societies each year. Dr. S. J. Flowers, in charge of inspecting scientific facilities for the Canadian Council on Animal Care has written: "I have often stated, when I have spoken to humane movements, that during most of my career as a practicing veterinarian, there is no question that I saw far more abuse, neglect, and cruelty to farm and pet animals than I have ever seen in any research facility I visited (Sechzer, 1983, p. 154).
Yet there is no prospect of passing legislation requiring pet owners to have a detailed plan for the use and care of their pets approved by a committee before they can have them, or raising license fees enough to pay for a bureaucracy of surprise inspections, and of establishing minimum housing standards for pets. Understand, I am not arguing for such measures, but why do the radical animal activists not do so instead of concentrating on legislation for the much smaller problem of using animals in research? Minimum standards for research animal rooms are already higher than those for human habitation. If the inspector finds any cockroaches, or even flecked paint in my animal room, I hear about it. But both exist in the Faculty Housing where I live. And conditions in slum housing are vastly worse!
In 1982, more than 128 million cattle, hogs, and sheep, and 4 billion chickens were killed for food. Contrast these with the much smaller number of animals used in research.
In 1980, more than 250 million game fish were caught for sport by sharp hooks in their mouths, but there is no prospect of passing a law requiring all fisherman to use an expensive hook that injects a drug that produces complete anesthesia as soon as the fish bites. While slowly suffocating out of the water, the 5 billion pounds of commercial fish harvested each year writhe in distress.
Why so much more agitation about the relatively few animals that are used in biomedical experiments that produce knowledge that relieves animal and human suffering? It can only mean that we have failed miserably in our duty to teach our students and the general public to understand how exploring the unknown and making new discoveries by research on animals often unpredictably and often after many failures, leads to knowledge that contributes to the relief of human suffering.
To highlight the ethical issue, I could show you pictures of some "blue babies" who were saved from suffering and death by an operation that was developed by experiments on dogs and could not even have been thought of without a long chain of animal research. The same is true of another child whose operation corrected a birth defect in his intestine. I have pictures of a child crippled by polio and of other children pitifully confined by polio to a life in iron lungs. The vaccine that for pennies now prevents such suffering and extremely expensive care could not have been developed without research on animals. It saved over 50,000 children from this dreadful disease the first year it was introduced.
If these were your children, would you want the research that could save them to have been stopped? Do you want to sentence some of your children and grandchildren to suffering and death by stopping the research that may save them? Will you please think about this? As for me, I believe that to prevent, cripple, or needlessly complicate the research that can relieve animal and human suffering is profoundly inhumane, cruel, and immoral.
References
Comroe, J. J., & Dripps J. D. The Top Ten Clinical Advances in Cardiovascular-Pulmonary Medicine and Surgery, 1945-1975. Final Report, January 31, 1977. Bethesda: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Intitute, 1977.
Ince, L. P. Behavioral Modification in Rehabilitation Medicine. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1976.
Keen, W. W. Animal Experimentation and Medical Progress. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1914.
Miller, N. E. Effects of learning on physical symptoms produced by psychological stress. In H. Selye (Ed.), Selye's Guide to Stress Research. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1980. Pp. 131-167.
Miller, N. E. Behavioral medicine: Symbiosis between laboratory and clinic. Annual Review of Psychology, 1983, 34, 1-31. (a)
Miller, N. E. Understanding the use of animals in behavioral research: Some critical issues. In J. A. Sechzer (Ed.), The Role of Animals in Biomedical Research. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1983, 406, 113-118. (b)
Overholser, W. Has chlorpromazine inaugurated a new era in mental hospitals? Journal of Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology, 1956, 17, 197-201.
Pomerleau, O., & Brady, J. P. (Eds.), Behavioral Medicine: Theory and Practice. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkens, 1979.
Sechzer, J. E. (Ed.), The Role of Animals in Biomedical Research. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1983, 406.
Swazey, J. P. Chlorpromazine in Psychiatry. A Study of Therapeutic Innovation. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1974.
Thorndike, E. L. Animal intelligence: An experimental study of the associative processes in animals. Psychological Review Monograph Supplement 2, No. 8, 1898.
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Author's address: The Rockefeller University, 1230 York Ave., New York, NY 10021.
*This is a slightly edited version of a paper presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Anaheim, CA, August, 1983.
** See article by Coile & Miller in this issue of the Newsletter for additional information on this question.
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New officers of the International Primatological Society were elected at the Xth Congress of the Society in Nairobi, Kenya, July 22-27, to four-year terms, beginning January 1, 1985. They are as follows: President--John P. Hearn (United Kingdom). Secretary General--Gisela Epple (Federal Republic of Germany). Vice President (Captive Care and Breeding)--James G. Else (Kenya). Vice President (Species and Habitat Conservation)--Kenneth M. Green (U.S.A.). Secretary for Membership Information--Herman Dienske (The Netherlands). Treasurer--W. Richard Dukelow (U.S.A.). Secretary for Africa--A. Allo (Camaroons). Secretary for Asia--P. K. Seth (India). Secretary for Europe--Annie Gautier-Hion (France). Secretary for the Americas--Milton Thiago de Mello (Brazil).
* * *
The California Biomedical Research Association (CBRA) has produced a video tape entitled "A Question of Life" for use in educational programs on the benefits of biomedical research and the necessity of the humane use of animals in biomedical research.
"A Question of Life" runs 14 minutes, and is aimed at an intelligent lay audience. It can stand alone as an educational tool, or it can be used as an introduction to a discussion on how and why animals are used in research.
The major themes covered in "A Question of Life" are the benefits to humans and to animals of biomedical research, examples of medical problems now in urgent need of research, and standards for care and treatment of laboratory animals. There are many shots of research animals being used in research, of patients, and of research facilities.
The video tape is available in three formats: 3/4 in. commercial; 1/2 in. VHS; and 1/2 in. Beta. The purchase price of $35 includes shipping. To order, mail payment or purchase order to: California Biomedical Research Association, 48 Shattuck Square, Box 114, Berkeley, CA 94704.
* * *
D. Caroline Coile
Florida State University
Neal E. Miller
The Rockefeller University
To rally mass support for protest at the 1984 American Psychological Association's Convention in Toronto {see News Briefs this issue}, a publication of the group, Mobilization for Animals (1984), has stated, "The tools of the experimental psychologist are mutilation, castration, agony, starvation, and insanity" (p. 3). They then went on to make more specific accusations that experimental psychologists were causing extreme animal suffering. Because these were serious accusations, a survey was conducted to determine how true and typical they were of experimental psychology. The survey covered every article (a total of 608) appearing during the last 5 years (1979 through 1983) in those journals published by the American Psychological Association that report animal research, namely, the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes and the Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology and its successors Behavioral Neuroscience and the Journal of Comparative Psychology.
The specific accusations (Mobilization for Animals, 1984, p. 3) and the percentage of articles in which such treatments and/or results were reported were:
1. "Animals are given intense, repeated electric shocks which they cannot escape, until they lose the ability to even scream in pain any longer"--0.0%.
2. "They are deprived of food and water to suffer and die slowly from hunger and thirst"--0.0%.
3. "They are put in total isolation chambers until they are driven insane, or even die from despair and terror"--0.0%.
4. "They are subjected to crushing forces which smash their bones, and rupture their internal organs"--0.0%.
5. "Their limbs are mutilated or amputated to produce behavioral changes"--0.0%.
6. "They are the victims of extreme pain and stress, inflicted upon them out of idle curiosity, in nightmarish experiments designed to make healthy animals psychotic"--0.0%.
In the exact form stated, none of the extreme allegations were found to be true in any of the 608 articles. It might be argued that the accusations were true but were not reported. But, if the purposes and results were as alleged, there would have been no point in not reporting them. We can only conclude that if experiments of the type described did occur, they were not reported in APA journals over the last 5 years. Such studies may have occurred and may have been reported elsewhere or may have gone unpublished. If so, they certainly were infrequent and it is extremely misleading to imply that they were typical of experimental psychology.
We do not claim that animals are never caused to suffer in any behavioral experiments. In other biomedical research it has been and is necessary to cause some experimental animals to suffer from conditions such as cancer, polio, distemper, rabies, and AIDS in order to understand such conditions and to develop vaccines or therapies that relieve the suffering of many more animals and people (Randall, 1983). Similarly, in behavioral research it is necessary to inflict some pain in order to learn how better to control chronic pain, a condition that still causes great suffering and is an economic burden estimated at $50 billion a year (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1982). Recently, behavioral research of this kind has resulted in the discovery of both opiate and non opiate pathways in the central nervous system that can inhibit pain (Liebeskind & Paul, 1977). But such research is not conducted out of "idle curiosity" as alleged in item 6 above. Other experiments involving inescapable shock (but not "until the animals lose the ability to even scream in pain") were aimed at understanding mechanism believed likely to be involved in human depression, a condition that often causes its victims such intense suffering that they are driven to suicide. For young adults, suicide is the third leading cause of death. The suicide of a child is a horrible tragedy for the parents.
Actually, only 3.9% of the studies in our sample (only 0.2% involving monkeys, dogs, or cats) used inescapable shocks stronger than .001 of an ampere, a strength that most experimenters can easily endure on their fingers. Only 10.0% (0.5% involving monkeys, dogs, or cats) used electric shocks at all.
No animals were starved to death as was alleged. No periods of food deprivation were longer than 48 hr and only 0.6% were longer than 24 hr, the period most veterinarians recommend for pets, that is, feeding once a day. None of the procedures reduced the animals to below 70% of their normal body weight when given unlimited access to food, and only 3.6% of our sample involved reductions below 80% (only 0.3% involving mammals). However, unlimited access to food without need for energetic foraging leads to unhealthy obesity, as demonstrated by the fact that deprivation levels similar to the greatest used in our sample of experiments prolong life (Harper, 1982; Ross, 1976).
Even fewer studies employed water deprivation. Only 0.7% of the studies in our sample deprived animals for more than 24 hr, and none for more than 48 hr. No animals died of thirst.
The opening general statement of the radical activists implied that castration is a typical tool of the experimental psychologist. Our survey found 5.3% of the studies involved castration. However, that procedure, described as altering or neutering, is one of the beneficial services performed or recommended by most humane societies.
The fact that most of the studies (over 80% of those involving shock or deprivation) in our sample were supported by respected organizations, such as the National Institute of Health, National Science Foundation, and National Institute of Drug Abuse, indicated that they were not performed out of "idle" curiosity. Anyone who has submitted a grant proposal to these organizations knows that they do not fund projects without explicitly stated purposes and justifications, which are carefully evaluated. It is not easy to get money for research; in fact only about 25% of the studies submitted are funded. By its very nature of exploring the unknown, basic research must be evaluated for its scientific soundness rather than for prospects for immediate application. Often such research leads to valuable applications that cannot be anticipated. This was the case in some of the behavioral research on animals that led to the development of chlorpromazine, a drug that contributed so much to relieving the horrible and hopeless conditions in the back wards of large mental hospitals (Miller, 1983; Swazey, 1974). It is also true of other types of research. In a monumental study of the 10 clinical advances in cardiovascular and pulmonary medicine and surgery rated by physicians as having most benefited their patients, Comroe and Dripps (1977) found that 41.6% of the 663 studies essential for these advances were done by scientists whose goal at that time was unrelated to the later clinical advance. Reading the study makes it clear that all of the 10 clinical advances were dependent on knowledge gained by research on animals. {See additional comments on this study in the article by Miller (p. XX) in the present issue of this Newsletter.}
The Mobilization for Animals (1984) statement continues:
If all the millions of dollars which are spent annually on pointless psychology experiments on animals were instead used to fund treatment centers for abused children and battered women, programs for alcoholics and better facilities for victims of mental illness, then there would be direct human benefit from the use of those funds and this is what we must insist should happen (p.3).
Actually the annual cost of behavioral research on animals by the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Science Foundation is only approximately .0002 of the cost for the care of mental illness alone. Thus, shifting this research money to care would not have a noticeable effect on care but, if history is any guide, would greatly retard further relief of such illness (Swazey, 1974).
Nobody wants to see animals suffer needlessly, nor do they want progress toward the elimination of suffering in humans to be halted. Therefore, it is essential to be totally honest in the representation of facts concerning animal welfare in research. At the turn of the century, a Scottish clergyman, David Macdonald, characterized the style of the leading radical antivivisectionist of his day as "suggestio falsi" and "suppressio veri," that is, suggest the false and suppress the true (in Paton, 1979). Apparently, the same techniques are in use today. By misleading humane people, the radical animal activists are in fact diverting the energy and funds of humane groups away from areas where animal abuse is common (such as the abandonment of 10 million pet dogs and cats** each year to die of starvation, disease, and road accidents) in order to focus upon an area in which it is rare.
References
Comroe, J. H., & Dripps, R. D. The top ten clinical advances in cardiovascular pulmonary medicine and surgery 1945-1975. Final Report. Bethesda, MD: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, 1977.
Harper, A. E. Nutrition, aging, and longevity. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1982, 36, 737-749.
Liebeskind, J. C., & Paul, L. A. Psychological and physiological mechanisms of pain. Annual Review of Psychology, 1977, 28, 41-60.
Miller, N. E. Understanding the use of animals in behavioral research: Some critical issues. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1983, 406, 113-118.
Mobilization for Animals. Direct Action Program 1984. Columbus, OH: Author, 1984.
Paton, W. D. M. Animal experiment and medical research: A study in evolution. Forty-seventh Stephen Paget Memorial Lecture. Conquest, 1979, 169, 1-14.
Randall, W. C. Is medical research in jeopardy? The Physiologist, 1983, 26, 73-77.
Ross, M. H. Nutrition and longevity in experimental animals. In Wineck, M. (Ed.), Nutrition and aging. New York: Wiley & Sons, 1976. Pp. 43-57.
Swazey, J. P. Chlorpromazine in psychiatry: A study of therapeutic innovation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1974.
U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. Chronic pain: Hope through research. (NIH Publication No. 82-2406). Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1982.
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First author's address: Florida State University, Tallahassee 32306.
* From the Comment section of American Psychologist, 1984, 39, 700-701.
** Studies reported in the APA journals for the last 5 years involved less than 200 dogs and cats. Although an equal number may have been used in studies reported in other journals and in exploratory work not reported, the total certainly is vastly less than the number of animals abandoned.
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* * *
In 1983, 23,846 cases of tuberculosis were reported to CDC, for a rate of 10.2 cases per 100,000 population. Compared with 1982, this represents a 6.6% decrease in the number of cases reported and a decline of 7.3% in the rate. Rates for the 50 states ranged from 23.1/100,000 in Hawaii to l.3/l00,000 in North Dakota. The rate increased in 13 states, remained unchanged in one, and decreased in 36.
The rate among persons living in 56 cities with populations of 250,000 or more was 21.2/100,000--more than twice the national rate. Urban rates ranged from 58.4/100,000 in Miami, Florida, to 2.5/100,000 in Toledo, Ohio. Eight cities had rates at least three times the national rate: Miami, Florida; Newark, New Jersey; Atlanta, Georgia; San Francisco, California; Tampa, Florida; Honolulu, Hawaii; Washington, D.C.; and Oakland, California.
In 1983, 1,360 tuberculosis cases were reported among children under 15 years of age, including 818 cases among children less than 5 yr of age; in 1982, there were 1,349 and 789 such cases, respectively.
Final tuberculosis mortality data for 1981 show 1,937 deaths. Compared with the final totals of 2,007 and 1.978 deaths in 1979 and 1980 and the 1982 provisional estimate of 1,980 deaths by the National Center for Health Statistics, there was essentially no change in tuberculosis mortality over the 4-yr period 1979-1982.--Reported by Division of Tuberculosis Control, Center for Prevention Services, CDC.
CDC Editorial Note: From 1968 through 1978, the average annual decrease in tuberculosis cases in the United States was 5.6%. From 1978 through 1981, when there was a large influx of Southeast Asian refugees, the average annual decline was only 1.4%. A 6.8% decrease in the number of cases in 1982 and the 6.6% decrease in 1983 indicate the previous downward trend has resumed.
Three factors may have contributed to the decreased number of tuberculosis cases reported in 1983: (1) There was an increase in the number of states using the new individual case reporting system, which requires more accurate verification of cases before they are counted; (2) the number of refugees arriving in the United States with tuberculosis declined; and (3) the number of indigenous tuberculosis cases may have actually declined.
Despite the decline in reported cases in 1983, tuberculosis persists as a public health problem. Transmission of infection continues, as evidenced by the continued occurrence and lack of decline of disease in young children. Tuberculosis mortality has not declined; moreover, in 1980, tuberculosis was the leading cause of death among 38 notifiable diseases for which mortality data were reported (CDC, 1983). The number of tuberculosis deaths that year exceeded the combined total of deaths for the other 37 notifiable diseases. It is estimated that more than 10 million persons in this country are infected with tubercle bacilli. They have a lifelong risk of developing disease, which can be minimized by giving preventive treatment. Additional cases will occur in new residents of this country who come from areas of the world where tuberculosis infection rates are much higher than in the United States. Unless otherwise contraindicated, these persons should receive a course of preventive therapy (ATS/CDC, 1983).
State and local health departments are responsible for ensuring the control of tuberculosis in the community. It is estimated that 40,000 persons on health department registers are currently under treatment or medical supervision for tuberculosis and that each year, approximately 200,000 persons exposed to new cases must be examined. Many of these persons are placed on preventive treatment. Tuberculosis control has been complicated by the global emergence of organisms resistant to antituberculous drugs (Kleeberg & Boshoff, 1980). Community outbreaks continue to occur in the United States (CDC, 1983; Silverman, 1984).
References
CDC. Annual summary 1982: Reported morbidity and mortality in the United States. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 1983, 31, 148.
American Thoracic Society/Centers for Disease Control (ATS/CDC). Treatment of tuberculosis and other mycobacterial diseases. American Review of Respiratory Diseases, 1983, 127, 790-796.
Kleeberg, H. H., & Boshoff, M. S. A world atlas of initial drug resistance. Pretoria, South Africa: Tuberculosis Research Institute of the South African Medical Research Council, 1980.
CDC. Interstate outbreak of drug-resistant tuberculosis involving children--California, Montana, Nevada, Utah. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 1983, 32, 516-518.
Silverman, P. R. An outbreak of tuberculosis in southern Delaware: The meaning of surveillance and containment. Delaware Medical Journal, 1984, 56, 156-158.
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* From Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (CDC), 1984, 33, 412-415.
LPN Editor's Note: This article, while pertaining to the incidence of tuberculosis in humans in the United States, indicates the continued potential threat to nonhuman primate colonies.
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* * *
Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) began clinical tests in July of a new inner ear transplant. The new implant will restore some hearing to selected patients. The clinical program follows more than eight years of NIH-funded research by a team in the UW Department of Otolaryngology and the UW Regional Primate Research Center. The studies, coordinated by Dr. Josef Miller, tested electrode implants in the ears of rhesus monkeys to measure hearing thresholds, range of hearing and hearing discrimination abilities. Dr. Robert Dobie will direct the new human trials, which will be conducted on persons who have become deaf in their adult years, because of the difficulty in testing and rehabilitating patients who have been deaf since birth.
Cochlear implants excite the 30,000 auditory nerve cells by stimulating those cells with minute electric currents. If researchers eventually can predictably stimulate small groups of nerve cells, then implanted patients will experience a greater variety of rhythm, pitch and nuance of sound.
The electric current that flows through the inner ear from an outside energy source may increase nerve damage by causing bone growth. The primate research helped to determine safe limits of stimulation to the inner ear.
In March of 1984, Miller became director of the Kresge Hearing Research Institute in Ann Arbor, MI. Miller is currently evaluating various strategies for implanting prostheses in patients and encoding information with these prostheses. Joint research will continue between the Kresge Institute and the UW.
Primate research coordinated by Dr. Francis Spelman of the Washington Primate Center will be done in tandem with Dobie's clinical trials. The basic research is designed to discover the effects of long term stimulation of the inner ear, to find the first elements excited by electrical stimulation and to determine the optimum location for the electrodes of the prosthesis.
* * *
Evidence from two investigations indicates that the retrovirus etiologically linked to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) may infect chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). In the first study, investigators from CDC and Emory University's Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center, Atlanta, Georgia, inoculated two chimpanzees with lymphadenopathy-associated virus (LAV) (Barre-Sinoussi et al., 1983), one of two prototype retrovirus isolates etiologically associated with AIDS (Gallo et al., 1984). Both animals were virologically and serologically negative before inoculation; both were injected simultaneously with concentrated virus and autologous lymphocytes that had been infected in vitro with LAV. Both animals were immunostimulated concomitantly by inoculation of diptheria-tetanus toxoid and pneumococcal vaccine. One animal received human lymphocytes as an additional immunostimulant.
Six days after inoculation, a retrovirus identified as LAV by reverse transcriptase assay, direct immunofluorescence, p25 competitive radioimmunoprecipitation, and electron microscopy was identified from peripheral lymphocytes of both animals. The virus was isolated from both animals from six consecutive lymphocyte specimens obtained every 2-4 wk. The most recent specimens were obtained more than 4 mo after inoculation. Antibody to the major core protein (p25) of LAV was first detected 3 mo after inoculation and was again present at 4 mo. In both animals, five consecutive postinoculation T4/T8 ratio determinations have shown an apparent downward trend although values are significantly below normal in only one. No clinical illness has been detected in the animals, and physical examinations have remained normal.
In the second study, investigators at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research have found evidence of transmission of HTLV-III to two chimpanzees receiving human plasma from an individual with the lymphadenopathy syndrome. Evidence for infection includes anti-HTLV-III seroconversion, depression of T4./T8 ratios, and, in one animal, the development of severe, prolonged lymphadenopathy coincident with seroconversion.-- Reported by H. McClure, DVM, B. Swenson, DVM, F. King, Ph.D., Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia; J-C Chermann, Ph.D., F. Barre-Sinousi, Ph.D. L. Montagnier, M.D., Institut Pasteur, Paris, France; J. Eichberg, Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, San Antonio, Texas; C. Saxinger, R. Gallo, National Cancer Institute; H. Alter, H. Masur, A. Macher, Clinical Center, C. Lane, A. Fauci, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland; Division of Viral Diseases, Division of Host Factors, Center for Infectious Diseases, CDC.
CDC Editorial Note: Primate transmission experiments have been under way at CDC and NIH for some time. LAV and HTLV-III, as well as human AIDS tissue, have been inoculated into several species of primates, including marmosets, rhesus monkeys, and chimpanzees. Except for some lymphocyte changes (Gajdusek et al., (1984), no disease or infection has been previously reported. The studies reported here indicate that LAV/HTLV-III can be transmitted to chimpanzees both by inoculating virus isolates and human plasma. In some instances, immunologic abnormalities and prolonged lymphadenopathy have followed inoculation, but opportunistic infections or tumors characteristic of AIDS have not developed. Transmission of HTLV-III from lymphocyte-poor human plasma is consistent with reports of AIDS among recipients of plasma or anti-hemophilic concentrates made from pooled plasma (Curran et al., 1984; Evatt et al., 1984).
The virus isolated from the LAV-inoculated chimpanzees was morphologically and immunologically identical to LAV. Virus particles were morphologically distinct from the Type D retrovirus etiologically implicated in "simian AIDS," a transmissible syndrome of macaques (Marx et al., 1984; Letvin et al., 1983).
Long-term follow-up of the LAV and HTLV-III-infected chimpanzees, as well as other primates, is continuing. Careful examination of the interaction between infection and host response in primates could clarify the pathogenesis of AIDS in humans.
References
Barre-Sinoussi, F., Chermann, J. C., Rey, F., et al. Isolation of a T-lymphotropic retrovirus from a patient at risk for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Science, 1983, 220, 868-871.
Gallo, R. C., Salahuddin, S. Z., Popovic, M., et al. Frequent detection and isolation of cytopathic retroviruses (HTLV-III) from patients with AIDS and at risk for AIDS. Science, 1984, 224, 500-503.
Gajdusek, D. C., Amyx, H. L., Gibbs, C. J., et al. Transmission experiments with human T-lymphotropic retroviruses and human AIDS tissue. Lancet, 1984, 1, 1415-1416.
Curran, J. W., Lawrence, D. N., Jaffe, H. W., et al. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) associated with transfusions. New England Journal of Medicine, 1984, 310, 69-75.
Evatt, B. L., Ramsey, R. B., Lawrence, D. N., Zyla, L. D., & Curran, J. W. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in hemophilia patients. Annals of Internal Medicine, 1984, 100, 495-498.
Marx, P. A. Maul, D. H., Osborn, K. G., et al. Simian AIDS: isolation of a type D retrovirus and transmission of the disease. Science, 1984, 223, 1083-1086.
Letvin, N. L., Aldrich, W. R., King, N. W., et al. Experimental transmission of macaque AIDS by means of inoculation of macaque lymphoma tissue. Lancet, 1983, 11, 599-602.
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* From Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (CDC), 1984, 33, 442-443.
See abstract of related Science article in New Books and Articles section.
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* * *
An International Conference on Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) will be held April 15-17, 1985, at the World Congress Center, Atlanta, Georgia, sponsored by CDC; the National Institutes of Health; the Food and Drug Administration; the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration; the Health Resources and Services Administration; and the World Health Organization. The purpose of the meeting is to review strategies for the prevention and control of AIDS and to exchange information on screening and diagnostic tests for AIDS and on the epidemiology, virology, immunology, clinical manifestations, and treatment of AIDS. Seating will be available for 1,800 participants. An announcement of keynote speakers and a call for abstracts will be published later. To obtain further information and future announcements, contact: AIDS Conference, Building 1, Room 2047, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia 30333.
* * *
Allan M. Schrier and Morris L. Povar
Brown University
Twin stumptailed monkeys (Macaca arctoides) were born August 12, 1984 in one of our harem-type breeding pens in the Primate Behavior Laboratory. We have not determined the sex of the infants as yet. The breeding program was recently described in an article in this Newsletter (Schrier & Povar, 1983). The mother is Kim, whom we described as one of the more prolific females in our colony. She has now given birth in five of the eight years that she has been in the breeding pen. This is the first pair of twins out of a total of 48 births in our laboratory since 1975.
Relevant Cartoon
We are aware of only two other published reports of twin stumptailed monkeys. In reviewing the incidence of twin births in nonhuman primates, Wildt and Dukelow (1974) cited a report by Hendrickx, Houston and Kraemer (1968) of 1 pair of stumptailed twins in 82 births. Brüggerman and Grauwiler (1972) reported 1 pair of twin stumptailed monkeys out of 57 pregnancies. Taking these reports together with our data, the incidence of twins in stumptailed monkeys is 3 in 187 births (1.6%). At that time, Windt and Dukelow concluded that, on the basis of the available data, "rhesus monkeys (0.5-1.0% twinning) or, more ideally, stumptailed monkeys (1.2%) would represent most closely the human incidence of multiple births" (1974, p. 17)--i.e., 1 in 86 (1.2%).
However, while preparing this note, we decided to call several laboratories in the U. S. that we knew had breeding colonies of stumptailed monkeys, which added considerably to the total number of observations. The Wisconsin Regional Primate Center reported no twins in about 50 births of stumptailed monkeys, the California Regional Primate Center reported no twins in approximately 200 births, and the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center reported no twins in approximately 500 births. If we add these data to those given above, we get a total of only 3 twins in 937 births of stumptailed monkeys (0.32%), which is close to the low rate of twinning reported for baboons (Windt & Dukelow, 1974). The experience at the California Center with rhesus monkeys has been 5 sets of twins in about 2,000 births (0.25%). So with larger Ns available, it is beginning to appear that twinning in general in Old World monkeys may be much rarer than it is in humans.
References
Brüggermann & Grauwiler. Breeding results from an experimental colony of Macaca arctoides. In E. I. Goldsmith and J. Moor-Jankowski (Eds.), Medical Primatology 1972 (Part I). Basel: Karger, 1972.
Hendrickx, A. G., Houston, M. L., & Kraemer, D. C. Observations on twin baboon embryos (Papio sp.). Anatomical Record, 1968, 160, 181-186.
Schrier, A. M., & Povar, M. L. Results of a small-scale stumptailed monkey breeding program in a laboratory. Laboratory Primate Newsletter, 1983, 22{3}, 1-4.
Wildt, D. E., & Dukelow, W. R. The nonhuman primate as a model for human twinning. Laboratory Primate Newsletter, 1974, 13{4}, 15-18.
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Since 1979, the Biological Research Station Quinta do São Pedro,
located 8 km southwest of Lisbon, has served visitors from several
countries in the conduct of investigations in a variety of fields in
terrestrial (non-marine) biology. Opportunities particularly for work
in physiology, ecology, and behavior under seminatural conditions
combine here with a setting of scenic beauty, in a mild and economically
favorable climate. Laboratories and living quarters are available at
low rates for visiting biologists and students. The major emphasis has
been on plant physiology and insect behavior (orientation) through a
long-term cooperative project with the Departments of Botany and Zoology
at the University of Wu * * *
Animal Liberation Group Strikes Again
According to the
New York Times (August 12, 1984), activists struck a second time in
July at an animal laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania. The
raiders, who said they belonged to the Animal Liberation Front, carried
off three cats, two dogs and eight pigeons at the School of Veterinary
Medicine. A month earlier they had stolen videotapes and damaged
laboratory equipment in the School of Medicine. A University of
Pennsylvania spokesman indicated that the cats were being used in
studies of breathing during sleep, with the aim of better
understanding infant crib deaths and adult sleep apnea. One dog, which
had undergone bone repair with a steel plate, was being monitored for
osteoarthritis, a frequent complication with humans, while the other dog
was involved in a study of ear canal infection, work that would have
benefited other dogs. The pigeons were engaged in a study of broken
bones, with the results of benefit to all birds, according to
the spokesman.
Animal Use Protested in London Demonstration
More than 3,000 animal rights supporters, many wearing masks
representing dogs, cats and mice, held a
"die-in" protest in London's Trafalgar Square. To draw attention to
the plight of animals used in laboratory experiments, a protester fell
to the ground once every six seconds, symbolically "killed" by
white-coated fellow protesters posing as scientists. After one hour,
600 protesters were sprawled at the foot of Nelson's Column in the
central London square. Demonstrators said that number matched the
number of laboratory animals killed every hour in Britain.
Charles River Prize to Held
Dr. Joe R. Held was awarded the 7th Charles River Prize (Charles
River Foundation) July 17, 1984 at the annual meeting of the American
Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). The award is given to a
veterinarian selected by the AVMA in recognition of distinguished
contribution to the field of laboratory animal medicine. As an
assistant surgeon general in the U. S. Public Health Service, Dr. Held
is responsible for many intramural research programs at the National
Institutes of Health and is actively involved with the care and use of
research animals and related issues within the biomedical community. He
has been serving as the Chairman of the Interagency Primate Steering
Committee since its inception.
MFA Cancels Toronto Demonstration
Mobilization for Animals (MFA) cancelled its planned "massive"
demonstration at the annual meeting of the American Psychological
Association in Toronto on August 25 because a Canadian organization was
planning a competing demonstration to be held nearby at the same time.
MFA encouraged instead demonstrations at psychological laboratories in
the United States.
Wisconsin Primate Laboratory Renamed in Honor of Harlow
The Primate Laboratory of the Psychology Department, University of
Wisconsin, Madison, was formally renamed in honor of the late Professor
Harry F. Harlow in a ceremony in Madison, August 22, 1984. The ceremony
was attended by many former students and Primate Laboratory colleagues
of Harlow. A bronze plaque memorializing Dr. Harlow will be placed at
the entrance to the laboratory. In addition, the University of
Wisconsin Foundation has established the "Harry F. Harlow Fund" and is
accepting contributions and bequests from interested alumni and friends,
with the sole purpose of the fund being to "aid the Primate Laboratory
in its teaching, research, and public service roles." Contributions or
correspondence should be addressed to the: University of Wisconsin
Foundation, Harry F. Harlow Fund, 702 Langdon St., Madison, WI 53706.
* * *
Managing the Newsletter is not an easy task,
And much of the time I must wear a mask.
A mask of knowledge, when nothing makes sense,
A mask of calmness, when others are tense.
A mask of know-how when the computer keys stick,
And the typewriter greets you with a very odd click.
A mask of ignorance when calls come for others,
And you answer quite calmly, "He's gone to his brother's."
A mask of the scholar when reading the names
Of monkeys, in Latin, and subscribers in Spain.
A mask of panic as the deadline draws near,
And your stomach is sick, and your heart filled with fear.
Has the printer passed on? He doesn't answer the phone.
Is the Newsletter ready? Will it ever leave home?
Are the names spelled correctly? Are the zip codes affixed?
Have the words all been split at the proper prefix?
Is the ink nice and dark? Are the pages cut sharp?
Is anything wrong upon which they can harp?
The panic is over, the next mask comes out,
The mask of joy. I could dance. I could shout.
The Newsletter is here. It looks just divine.
I'll just take a rest... 'Til the very next time.
--Helen J. Shuman
Poetic Cartoon
* * *
The increasing difficulty of importing research primates is forcing
European countries to establish breeding colonies of commonly used
species. Malaysia recently became the latest of a series of countries
to ban the export of primates for research, citing as its principal
reason the discovery that monkeys exported to the United States were
being used for biochemical and nuclear weapons research. There were
also worries over the size of the remaining populations in the wild.
Military research accounts for about 15 per cent of the 20,000
primates used each year in the United States and about 12 per cent of
the 3,000 used in Britain; the great majority are used for testing
vaccines. But 12 countries have so far acted to prevent the export of
their primates, for various reasons, and if Indonesia and the Philippines
were to follow suit, prices would rise drastically.
Attempts to establish breeding colonies in the countries of use have
not often been economically viable, producing (for example) rhesus mokeys
at a cost of around
1,000 pounds--two to three times the cost of an animal caught in the wild. But
the governments of West Germany and Switzerland have been persuaded of
the need to establish national breeding colonies for primates, and in
Britain the Medical Research Council is encouraging a switch from Old
World to New World monkeys, which it breeds itself.
Malaysia, which exported between 2,000 and 3,000 macaques a year,
was not a major supplier and its ban is not expected to lead to acute
shortages. But the decision by India to ban the export of rhesus
monkeys in 1978 led to a switch towards the use of
other macaques, and future
political moves could lead to further changes in the species used.
While the wild populations of macaques in Indonesia and the Philippines
are not yet under serious threat, some in the primate business are
realizing that the supply will not last for ever.
Mr. Keith Hobbs of Intersimian Ltd. is one such person.
Hobbs says he left
the Medical Research Council in frustration that the Council would not
heed his advice to establish a breeding colony to meet Britain's primate
needs. His company, through an organization called SICONBREC, is now
building up a breeding colony of macaques in the Philippines. Hobbs
stresses that the high rates of loss in transport that were common in the
past have now been much improved. His aim is to build up a breeding
colony of around 1,000 females--which would go a long way towards
meeting Britain's needs. His price for a fully conditioned
Macaca fascicularis:
just 200 pounds.--Tim Beardsley
{from "News" section,
Nature, 1984, 308, 304".
* * *
The State University of New York Press announces a new series of
books in Primatology, under the editorship of Emil W. Menzel, Jr.
(Department of Psychology, State University of New York at Stony Brook)
and Randall Susman (Department of Anatomical Sciences, State University
of New York at Stony Brook).
The series will cover all aspects of primatology, including
behavior, morphology, and evolution. Authors of book-length manuscripts
are invited to submit descriptions of their projects, to gether with a
brief curriculum vitae, to L. Kay Richardson, SUNY Press, State
University Plaza, Albany, New York 12246.
* * *
Books
Perspectives in Primate Biology. P. K. Seth (Ed.). New Delhi:
Today and Tomorrow's Printers and Publishers, 1983. 225 pp. {Rupees:
345. Approx. $69}
Female Primates: Studies by Women Primatologists.
(Monographs in Primatology, Vol. 4). Meredith F. Small (Ed.).
New York: Liss, 1984. 258 pp. {Price: $58}
Of Mice, Models, and Men: A Critical Evaluation of Animal
Research.
Andrew N. Rowen. New York: State University of New York Press, 1984.
323 pp. {Price: Paper--$12.95. Cloth--$34.50}
Primate Paternalism. David M. Taub (Ed.). New York: Van
Nostrand Reinhold, 1984. 441 pp. {Price: $44.00}
Infanticide: Comparative and Evolutionary Perspectives.
Glenn Hausfater and Sarah Blaffer Hrdy (Eds.). New York: Aldine, 1984.
598 pp. {Price: $34.95}
Scientific Perspectives on Animal Welfare. W. Jean Dodds and
Barbara Orlans (Eds.). New York: Academic Press, 1982. 131 pp.
{Price: $16.}
Bibliographies
Review articles on the neural basis of learning and behavior
in nonhuman primates: A bibliography. Williams, J. B. Seattle:
Primate Information Center, 1983. 9 pp. {Price: $6.00 ($5.00 prepaid).
Send order to Primate Information Center, Regional Primate Research
Center SJ-50, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98l95}
Magazines, Newsletters, Reports.
REP: ANNUAL REPORT 1983. Rijswick. The Netherlands:
Organization for Health Research TNO, 1984.
Primate Eye 22 (Suppl.): 1-17, 1984. (Primate Society of Great
Britain)
Research Resources Reporter, 1984, 8{6}. (Published by the
Research Resources Information Center for the Division of Research
Resources, NIH)
Lab Animal, 1984, 13{4}. (United Business Publications)
Disease
Lymphoma in macaques: Association with virus of human T
lymphotrophic family. Homma, T., Kanki, P. J.,
King, N. W., Jr., Hunt, R. D., O'Connell, M. J., Letvin, N. L., Daniel,
M. D., Desrosiers, R. C., Yang, C. S., & Essex, M.
(Dept. of Cancer Biol., Harvard Sch. of Public Hlth., Boston, MA 02115)
Science, 1984, 225, 716-718.
The Schirmer tear test in rhesus monkeys
(Macaca mulatta). Jaax, G. P., Graham, R. R., & Rozmiarek, H. (US
Army Medical Res. Inst. of Inf. Dis., Frederick, MD 21701)
Laboratory Animal Science, 1984, 34, 293-294.
Malignant lymphoma and Hodgkin's disease in baboons
(Papio sp.). Gleiser, C. A., Carey, K. D., & Heberling, R.. L.
(Dept. of Lab. Anim. Med., Southwest Found. for Biomed. Res., PO Box
28147, San Antonio, TX 78234)
Laboratory Animal Science, 1984, 34, 286-289.
Simian varcella infection in the African green monkey
(Cercopithecus aethiops).
Lehner, N. D. M., Bullock, B. C., & Jones, N. D. (Bowman Gray Sch. of
Med. of Wake Forest Univ., Winston-Salem, NC 27103)
Laboratory Animal Science, 1984, 34, 281-285.
Clinical features of simian acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
(SAIDS) in rhesus monkeys. Henrickson, R. V., Maul, D. H., Lerche, N.
W., Osborn, K. G., Lowenstine, L. J., Prahalada, S., Sever, J. L.,
Madden, D. L., & Gardner, M. B. (California Prim. Res. Ctr., Univ. of
Calif., Davis, CA 956l6)
Laboratory Animal Science, 1984, 34, 140-145.
Epidemiologic aspects of an outbreak of acquired immunodeficiency in
rhesus monkeys
(Macaca mulatta). Lerche, N. W., Henrickson, R. V., Maul, D. H., &
Gardner, M. B. (address same as in previous reference).
Laboratory Animal Science, 1984, 34, 146-140.
Louse infestations of tree shrews
(Tupai glis). Durden, L. A., & DeBruyn, E. J. (Dept. of Anatomy,
Vanderbilt Univ. Sch. of Med., Nashville, TN 37232.)
Laboratory Animal Science, 1984, 34, 188-190.
Intestinal parasites of the free-ranging Cayo Santiago rhesus
monkeys
(Macaca mulatta). Kessler, M. J., Yarbrough, B., Rawlins, R. G.,
& Berard, J. (Caribbean Prim. Res. Ctr., PO Box 1053, Sabana Seca, PR
00749)
Journal of Medical Primatology, 1984, 13, 57-66.
Physiology
Hematology of the lesser mouse lemur
(Microcebus murinus): A preliminary study. Der Goukassian, Ph.
(Laboratoire d'Ecologie Générale, Muséum National d'Historie,
Naturelle, 4 avenue du Petit Cha A surgical procedure and tethering system for chronic blood sampling,
infusion, and temperature monitoring in caged nonhuman primates.
McNamee, G. A., Jr., Wannemacher, R. W., Jr., Dinterman, R, E.,
Rozmiarek, H., & Montrey, R. D. (Animal Res. Div., US Army Med. Res.
Inst. of Inf. Dis., Fort Detrick, Frederick, MD 21701)
Laboratory Animal Science, 1984, 34, 303-307.
Serum biochemical, hematological and body measurement data for
common marmosets
(Callithrix jacchus jacchus). Yarbrough, L. W., Tollett, J. L.,
Montrey, R. D., & Beattie, R. J. (Veterinary Resources Branch, US Army
Med. Res. Inst. of Chemical Defense, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21010)
Laboratory Animal Science, 1984, 34, 276-280.
Blood chemistry of the common marmoset
(Callithrix jacchus) maintained in an indoor-outdoor environment:
Primate comparisons. McNees, D. W., Lewis, R. W., Ponzio, B. J., Sis,
R. F., & Stein, F. J. (Texas A&M Univ., 3113 Hummimgbird Circle, Bryan,
TX 77801)
Primates, 1984, 25, 103-109.
Activated coagulation time for rhesus monkeys
(Macaca mulatta). Schiffer, S. P., Gillett, C. S., & Ringler, D.
H. (Unit for Lab. Anim. Med., Univ. of Michigan Med. Sch., Ann Arbor,
MI 48109)
Laboratory Animal Science, 1984, 34, 191-193.
Ophthalmoscopic observasions of ocular fundus in colony-born
cynomolgus monkeys aged from 0 day to 90 days. Suzuki, M. T., Narita,
H., Tanaka, Y., Cho, F., & Fukui, M. {In Japanese.} (The Corporation
for Production of Laboratory Primates, and Tsukuba Primate Center for
Medical Science, The National Institute of Health, Hachiman dai,
Yatabe-machi, Tsukuba-gun, Ibaraki-ken, and Institute of Basic Medical
Sciences, The University of Tsukuba, Tennodai, Sakura-mura,
Niihari-gun, Ibaraki-ken 305, Japan)
Experimental Animals, 1984, 33, 173-179.
Restoration of sexual performance in old rhesus macaques paired with
a preferred female partner. Chambers, K. C., & Phoenix, C. H.
(Reprod. Biol. & Behav., Oregon Reg. Prim. Res. Ctr., Beaverton, OR
97006)
International Journal of Primatology, 1984, 5, 287-298.
Breeding
Diagnosis and treatment of infertility in male great apes. Gould,
K. G. (Yerkes Reg. Prim. Res. Ctr., Emory Univ., Atlanta GA 30322)
Zoo Biology, 1983, 2, 281-293.
Reproductive performance of three species of Callitrichidae.
Tardif, S. D., Richter, C. B., & Carson, R. L. (Marmoset Res. Ctr.,
Med. & Hlth. Sci. Div., Oak Ridge Associated Universities, Oak Ridge, TN
37831)
Laboratory Animal Science, 1984, 34, 272-275.
Timing of sexual maturity in female rhesus monkeys
(Macaca mulatta) housed outdoors. Wilson, M. E., Gordon, T. P.,
Blank, M. S., & Collins, D. C. (Yerkes Regional Prim. Res. Ctr., Field
Station, 2409 Collins Hill Rd., Lawrenceville, GA 30245)
Journal of Reproduction & Fertility, 1984, 70, 625-633.
Non-seasonal breeding patterns in stumptail macaques
(Macaca arctoides). Smith, E. O. (Yerkes Reg. Prim. Res. Ctr.,
Field Station, Emory Univ., 2409 Collins Hill Rd., Lawrenceville, GA
30245)
Primates, 1984, 25, 117-122.
Facilities and Care
Trapping, care, and laboratory management of the silvered leaf
monkey
(Presbytis cristatus). Palmieri, J. R., Van Dellen, A. F.,
Tirtokusumo, S., Masbar, S., Rusch, J., & Connor, D. H. (Dept. of
Infect. & Parasitic Dis. Pathol., Armed Forces Inst. of
Pathol., Washington, DC 20306)
Laboratory Animal Science, 1984, 34, 194-197.
Taxonomy
On the validity of the family-group name Callitrichidae
(Platyrrhini, Primates). Hershkovitz, P. (Field Museum of Natural
History, Roosevelt Rd. at Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, IL 60605)
Mammalia, 1984, 48, 153.
Conservation
A new locality for the lion-tailed macaque. Groombridge, B. (IUCN
Conservation Monitoring Ctr, 219(c) Huntingdon Rd., Cambridge CB3 0DL,
UK)
Oryx, 1984, 18, 144-147.
Endangered species of Bangladesh. Khan, M. A. R. (Al-Ain Zoo and
Aquarium, PO Box 1204, Alain, Abu Dabai, UAE)
Oryx, 1984, 18, 152-156.
Gorilla trading, the nightmare that will not go away. International
Primate Protection League Special Report, April 1984. 20 pp.
(Available from IPPL, P.O. Box 766, Summerville, SC 29484, $2.00 post
paid.)
---------------------------------------------------
In many cases, the original source of reference in this
section has been the Current Primate References prepared by
The Primate Information Center, Regional Primate Research Center
SJ-50, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98l95. Because of this
excellent source of references, the present section is devoted
primarily to presentation of abstracts of articles of practical
or of general interest.
In most cases, abstracts are those of the authors.
---------------------------------------------------
* * *
Alexandra C. Bakarich, Naval Ocean Systems Ctr., Code 524, San
Diego, CA 92152.
Niles Bernick, Neurosciences Research Branch, NIMH, 5600
Fishers Lane, Rm 9C-09, Rockville, MD 20857.
Ron Forino, Pace Setter Systems, 12884 Bradley Ave., Sylmar,
CA 91342.
Greysolynne J. Fox, 107 N. Oak St., Apt. 5, Greenville, NC 27834.
Patricia E. Fritz, Box 1785, PO Box 850, Hershey, PA 17033.
Elizabeth G. Gibson, 8 Cowperthwaite St., Harvard University,
Cambridge, MA 02138.
James C. S. Kim, SDS Biotech Co., 7528 Auburn Rd., PO Box 348,
Painesville, OH 44077.
Anndrea Lenhard, 4602 Florence Rd., Knoxville, TN 37920.
R. M. Letscher, Code 43, NAMRL-NAS, Pensacola, FL 32508.
T. M. Long, Zoonosis Control, Public Health Region 9,
PO Drawer 630, Uvalde, TX 78801.
Arthur W. O'Brien, Dept. of Clinical Investigation, William
Beaumont Army Medical Center, El Paso, TX 79920.
V. Hugh Price, Animal Resources Divison, School of Medicine,
Louisiana State University Medical Center, PO Box 33932,
Shreveport, LA 71130.
Richard G. Rawlins, Dept. Obstetrics & Gynecology,
Rush-Presybterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, 1753 W. Congress Parkway,
Chicago, IL 60612.
Research Resources Information Ctr., 1601 Research Blvd.,
Rockville, MD 20850.
Lawrence G. Sharpe, NIDA Addiction Research Center,
Bldg. C., 4940 Eastern Ave., PO Box 5180, Baltimore, MD 21224.
Charles E. Thalken, PSC Box 2344, APO San Francisco, CA 96238.
* * *
NOTE: All printed back issues of the Laboratory Primate Newsletter
are available at $3 each.
All correspondence concerning the Newsletter should be addressed to:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Newsletter is supported by U. S. Public Health
We are grateful to Linda Straw Coelho of San Antonio, Texas, for providing the cover drawing of a chimpanzee.
Copyright @1984 by Brown University
Editor: Allan M. Schrier News Briefs
Managing Editor's Lament
Primate Supply Shrinks
New Primatology Series Announced by SUNY Press
Recent Books and Articles
(Addresses are those of first authors)
. . .Original papers dealing with communication patterns in
nonhuman primates as they occur in different environments; papers also
present data on eco-management and conservation of the free ranging
monkeys vis-a-vis correlates in their behavior and social development.
. . .Contents: SECTION I - SOCIOBIOLOGY: Social affinities in the
Riverbanks howler monkeys, by M. Neville;
Adaptive and nonadaptive classes of infanticide, by S. B. Hrdy;
Patterns of territorial
vocalizations in the pileated gibbon, by S. Srikosarmatara, & W.
Brockelman; Spatial arrangements of baboons in moving progressions, by
R. J. Rhine, H. F. Quick IV, R. Stillwell-Barnes, B. J. Westlung, & H.
D. Westlung;
Types of social organization among prosimian and platyrrhine primates, by
K. Richarz;
Sociobiology of free ranging rhesus monkeys, by P. K. Seth, S. Seth, &
A. K. Shukla; Estrus and mating behavior in the rhesus
monkeys, by D. G. Lindburg;
Olfactory communication in the lesser mouse lemur
(Microcebus murinus), by A. R. Glatston;
Infant snatching
behavior in the rhesus macaques, by P. R. Ojha;
Field experiments
and observations on rhesus and bonnet monkeys: A case for primate
sociobiology, by Mewa Singh & R. S. Pirta;
Birth seasonality in
Cercopithecus aethiops, by M. Kavanagh;
The great call of
Hylobates concolor Hainanus: Comparison with the homologous
emission of
H. concolor Gabrielle and H. concolor Leucogenys, by C. Demars,
C. Berthomeier, & M. Goustard;
Infant cannabalism in chimpanzees, by U. Kitahara-Frisch, & K. Norikoshi.
. . .SECTION II - NEUROBIOLOGY. Is there a cerebral hemispheric
specialisation in nonhuman primates?, by B Preilowski; Morphological
cerebral asymmetries in primates, by M. J. LeMay, & N. Geschwind; Short
term periodicities of motor patterns in monkey behaviour, by D. Todl;
Sleep in two Lemuridae obtained by telemetry, by E. Balzamo, G.
Vullion-Casicuttold, J. J. Peter, & J. Bert.
. . .SECTION III - ONTOGENY, GENETICS AND EVOLUTION. Longitudinal study of
the physical development of hand-reared common marmosets
(Callithrix jacchus), by J. Kuster; Chromosomal homology in
Macaca mulatta, Papio papio and man, by P. K. Seth, M. B. Saxena, &
S. Seth; The problem of hominid bipedalism, R. H. Tuttle, & G. W.
Cortright; Some important trends in the process of hominization, by V.
Vancata, & V. Privratsky; Genetic variations in primates: Red cell
enzymes and serum proteins in rhesus monkeys, baboons and langurs, by S.
Seth, & V. P. Dixit.
. . .SECTION IV - ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION. Food
availability, diet and ranging behaviour in Tana River red colobus
(Colobus badius Ruformitratus), by C. W. Marsh; Rhesus monkeys:
Effect of habitat structure, human contact and religious beliefs on
population size, by J. R. Oppenheimer; A population survey of forest
dwelling rhesus monkeys in north India, by P. Dolhinow, & D. G.
Lindburg; Ecological considerations important in the interpretation of
census data on free ranging rhesus monkeys in Nepal, by J. Tea; Status
and conservation of rhesus populations in India, by C. H. Southwick, &
M. F. Siddique.
. . .The volume is organized from the following perspective:
"When scientists first decided to study the social organization of
monkeys and apes in their natural habitats....it was widely assumed that
males determined the social structure of the group. Missing from most
of the early studies was any consideration of the activities of
females." In an attempt to correct this, data on a wide variety of
female primates is presented.
The volume also emphasizes the contributions of female primatologists
to the field.
. . .SECTION I. MOTHERS, INFANTS, AND ADOLESCENTS. Introduction, by
T. E. Rowell; Variation in mother-infant relationships: Traditional and
nontraditional factors, by C. M. Berman; Langur monkey females and
infants: The female's point of view, by P. Dolhinow, & N. Krusko;
Biparental care in
Aotus trivirgatus and Callicebus moloch, by P. C. Wright;
Reproductive behavior of adolescent female baboons
(Papio anubis) in Kenya, by L. M. Scott.
. . . SECTION II. FEMALE
REPRODUCTIVE STRATEGIES. Introduction, by S. B. Hrdy; Female
reproductive success in a group of free-ranging howling monkeys
(Alouatta palliata) in Costa Rica, by M. R. Clarke, & K. E. Glander;
Competition among female vervet monkeys, by P. L. Whitten; Japanese
macaque female sexual behavior:
A comparison of Arashiyama East and West,
by L. D. Wolfe; Emigration by female red howler monkeys and the case for
female competition, by C. M. Crockett; Life history patterns of female
patas monkeys, by J. Chism, T. Rowell, & D. Olson.
. . . SECTION III.
PATTERNS OF FEMALE BEHAVIOR. Introduction, by N. H. Bishop; The puzzle
of female feeding priority, by A. Jolly; Adult female sociality among
wild orangutans at Tanjung Puting Reserve, by B. M. F. Galdikas; Rhesus
monkey aggression and grooming social dynamics, by J. Teas; Aging and
reproductive success in female
Macaca mulatta, by M. F. Small.
. . .Contents: 1. Introduction. I. THE BACKGROUND. 2. What is
biomedical science? 3. Attitudes and assumptions. 4. Historical
notes on animal research and antivivisection. 5. Laboratory animal
ecology: The numbers puzzle. 6. Pain and suffering in laboratory
animals.
. . . II. THE ISSUES. 7. The use of animals in education: A
failure to deal with contradictory values. 8. Primate research: Monkey
puzzle or creative science. 9. Animal behavior and psychology
research. 10. The "Pound" animal battle. 11. Animal research: An
animal welfare case file. 12. A case for the defense.
. . . III. TOXICITY
TESTING IN SAFETY EVALUATION. 13. Toxicology testing and the use of
laboratory animals. 14. The LD50 test. 15. The Draize test. 16.
Chronic toxicity tests. 17. Toxicity testing: Proposals from an animal
welfare perspective.
. . . IV. THE MORAL QUESTION, ALTERNATIVES, AND
SUGGESTIONS. 18. The moral status of laboratory animals. 19.
Alternatives: A meeting ground for science and animal welfare. 20.
Suggestions for the future.
. . .One of the goals of this volume is to provide quantitative data
about nonhuman-primate adult male interactions with infants, a type of
data largely lacking in the existing literature, according to the volume
editor. Another goal is the integration of such interactions into a
framework of current evolutionary theory. The final chapters provide an
overall review and literature resource on the occurrence of male-infant
interactions.
. . . Contents: EMPIRICAL STUDIES. 1. Father-offspring
relationships in laboratory families of saddle-back tamarins
(Saguinus fuscicollis), by M. S. Cebul, & G. Epple. 2. Male
caretaking behavior among wild Barbary macaques
(Macaca sylvanus), by D. M. Taub. 3. Male-infant interactions
among free-ranging stumptail macaques,
by A. Estrada. 4. Adult male-immature interactions in captive
stumptail macaques
(Macaca arctoides), by E. O. Smith, & P. G. Peffer-Smith. 5.
Free-living rhesus monkeys: Adult male interactions with infants and
juveniles, by S. H. Vessey, & D. B. Meikle. 6. Social relations of
males and infants in a troop of Japanese monkeys: A consideration of
causal mechanisms, by H. Gouzoules. 7. Why males use infants, by S. C.
Strum. 8. Triadic interactions among male and infant chacma baboons,
by C. Busse. 9. Ontogeny of infant-adult male relationships during the
first year of life for yellow baboons
(Papio cynocephalus), by D. M. Stein. 10. Adult male-infant
interactions in the chimpanzee
(Pan troglodytes), D. Davis.
. . . THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 11.
The evolution of male parental investment: Effects of genetic
relatedness and feeding ecology on the allocation of reproductive
effort, by J. A. Kurland, & S. J. C. Gaulin. 12. Significance of
paternal investment by primates to the evolution of male-female
associations, by W. J. Hamilton, III. 13. The evolutionary role of
socio-ecological factors in the development of paternal care in the New
World family Callitrichidae, by A. G. Pook.
. . . REVIEWS. 14. Interactions
between adult males and infants in prosimians and New World monkeys, by
J. L. Vogt. 15. Adult male-infant interactions in Old World monkeys
and apes, by D. M. Taub, & W. K. Redican. 16. Observational studies of
father-child relationships in humans, by M. E. Lamb.
. . .Contents: Preface. Comparative and evolutionary perspectives
on infanticide: Introduction and overview, by S. B. Hrdy, & G. Hausfater.
I. BACKGROUND AND TAXONOMIC REVIEWS. 1. Infanticide,
siblicide, and avian nestline mortality, by D. W. Mock. 2. Infanticide
in carnivores, by C. Packer, & A. E. Pusey.
3. Cannibalism of early life stages in fishes, by W. J. Dominey, & L. S. Blumer.
4. The influence of conspecifics on egg and
larval mortality in amphibians, by M. P. Simon. 5. Intraspecific
predation and "infant killing" among invertebrates, by G. A. Polis. 6.
Mammalian reproduction: Constraints on the evolution of infanticide, by
V. D. Hayssen. 7. The evolutionary ecology of sex allocation: A
primer, by E. L. Charnov.
. . . II. INFANTICIDE IN NONHUMAN PRIMATES: A
TOPIC OF CONTINUING DEBATE. Infanticide in nonhuman primates: An
introduction and perspective, by G. Hausfater.
8. Infanticide by adult males in three primate species of Kibale
Forest, Uganda: A test of hypotheses, by L. Leland, T. T. Struhsaker, &
T. M. Butynski. 9. Infanticide in red howler monkeys
(Alouatta seniculus), by C. M. Crockett, & R. Sekulic. 10.
Infanticide in two populations of Savanna baboons, by D. A. Collins, C.
D. Busse, & J. Goodall. 11. Infanticide in mountain gorillas
(Gorilla gorilla beringei) with comparative notes on chimpanzees,
by D. Fossey. 12. Reproductive parameters, adult-male replacements,
and infanticide among free-ranging langurs
(Presbytis entellus) at Jodhpur (Rajasthan), India, by C. Vogel, &
H. Loch. 13. Infanticide in langurs: Strategies, counterstrategies,
and parameter values, by G. Hausfater. 14. Infant killing and male
reproductive strategies in langurs
(Presbytis entellus), by J. Boggess. 15. Proximate factors of
infanticide among langurs at Dharwar: A reply to Boggess, by Y.
Sugiyama. 16. Assumptions and evidence regarding the sexual selection
hypothesis: A reply to Boggess, by S. B. Hrdy.
. . . III. INFANTICIDE IN
RODENTS: QUESTIONS OF PROXIMATE AND ULTIMATE CAUSATION. Infanticidal
behavior in male and female rodents: Sectional introduction and
directions for future research, by J. B. Labov. 17. Causes and
consequences on infanticide in populations of rodents, by R. J. Brooks.
18. Infanticide and the evolution of pregnancy block in rodents, by U.
W. Huck. 19. Infanticide by male and female mongolian gerbils:
Ontogeny, causation, and function, by R. W. Elwood, & M. C. Ostermeyer.
20. Psychobiological determinants underlying infanticide in mice, by B.
Svare, J. Broida, C. Kinsley, & M. Mann. 21. Proximate and ultimate
causes of infanticide and parental behavior in male house mice, by F. S.
vom Saal.
. . .
IV. INFANTICIDE IN HUMANS: ETHNOGRAPHY, DEMOGRAPHY, SOCIOBIOLOGY, AND
HISTORY. Concepts and classification in the study of human infanticide:
Sectional introduction and some cautionary notes, by M. Dickemann. 22.
Infanticide in human populations: Societal and individual concerns, by
S. C. M. Scrimshaw. 23. Deferred infanticide: Excess female mortality
during childhood, by S. R. Johansson. 24. A sociobiological analysis
of human infanticide, by M. Daly, & M. Wilson. 25. Ayoreo infanticide:
A case study, by P. E. Bugos, Jr., & L. M. McCarthy.
. . .Proceedings of the First Conference on Scientific Perspectives on
Animal Welfare, held Nov. 11-13, 1981, in Chevy Chase, MD under the
sponsorship of the Scientists Center for Animal Welfare. Contents:
OVERVIEW. Developments in the history of the use of animals in medical
research, by F. M. Loew; Toward refinement, replacement, and reduction
in the care and use of laboratory animals, by T. E. Malone.
. . . SECTION I.
INVESTIGATOR RESPONSIBILITIES IN ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION. The
investigator's responsibilities in research using animals, by F. W. L.
Kerr; Animal experimentation and the scientist, by M. E. Weksler;
Investigator responsibilities in animal experimentation, by P. M. Adams;
Summary of workshop on investigator responsibilities, by H. C. Rowsell.
. . .
SECTION II. INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES IN ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION.
Responsibilities of institutions for the welfare of experimental
animals, by H. J. Baker, J. R. Lindsey, & C. A. Da Rif; Swedish law on
laboratory animals, by K. J. Öbrink; Institutional responsibilities:
The committee's role, by J. G. Fox; Summary of workshop on
institutional responsibilities, by R. C. Simmonds.
. . . SECTION III.
FUNDING AGENCY RESPONSIBILITIES IN ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION.
Responsibilities of funding agencies for animal experimentation, by C.
E. Eyzaguirre; Responsibility of funding agencies: Central or local
control?, by D. J. Ramsay, & J. S. Spinelli; Funding agency
responsibilities in animal experimentation, by K. Kraner; Summary of
workshop on funding agency responsibilities, by F. B. Orlans.
. . .
SECTION IV. EDITORIAL RESPONSIBILITIES IN ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION.
Editorial responsibilities in animal research, by F. B. Golley;
Editorial policy for animal experimentation, by G. J. Thomas; Editorial
responsibilities in the care and management of animals used in research,
by R. M. Berne; Summary of workshop on editorial responsibilities, by
M. W. Fox.
. . . SECTION V. PUBLIC POLICY AND RECOMMENDATIONS. The
responsibility of scientists in determination of public policy for the
use of animals in biomedical research, by H. O. Halvorson; Summary of
recommendations on animal experimentation.
. . .This is the annual report of the REP, which stands for the
Radiobiological Institute TNO, Institute for Experimental Gerontology
TNO, and Primate Center TNO, Rijswijk Z.H., The Netherlands. Of the
many short notes describing the accomplishments of the organization, the
following are concerned with primates: IMMUNOLOGY AND TRANSPLANTATION
BIOLOGY. The use of monoclonal antibodies specific for T-cell subsets
as immunosuppressive agents in rhesus monkeys, by M. Jonker, P. Neuhaus,
& G. Goldstein; Induction of nonresponsiveness to murine monoclonal
antibodies in rhesus monkeys, by F.J. M. Nooij, & R. van Lambalgen;
Lymphocyte subpopulations in acute experimental allergic
encephalomyelitis in rhesus monkeys, by van Lambalgen, C. Meyran, C.
Zurcher, & M. Jonker. EXPERIMENTAL HAEMATOLOGY. Assessment of
haemopoietic stem cells toxicity of monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies
against human T lymphocytes in rhesus monkeys, by W. R. Gerritsen, G.
van Meurs, M. Jonker, & G. Wagemaker. ETHOLOGY. Effects of neuroleptic
treatment effects on abnormal behaviour of rhesus monkeys, by C. Goosen,
L. G. Ribbens, & K. J. van den Berg.
. . .Summary of current primate field studies. Chivers, D. J.
(Sub-dept of Veterinary Anatomy, Univ. of Cambridge, Tennis Court Rd.,
Cambridge CB2 1QS, England)
. . .This issue includes an article by G. Freiherr entitled
"Fertilization of monkeys to allow testing of human birth defects
theory." It summarizes work at the University of Wisconsin Regional
Primate Research Center involving
in vitro fertilization of rhesus monkeys. Among other things, the
procedure, when fully developed, will allow the testing of the
hypothesis that many birth defects are due to fertilization of ova that
have passed their optimal period of activity.
. . . One of the feature articles in this issue includes two panel
discussions held at a press seminar conducted by the Foundation for
Biomedical Research in cooperation with the Scientists Institute for
Public Information. The purpose of the seminar was to provide
information to help media interpret the public controversy over use of
animals in biomedical research. One of the panel discussions was on
"How Should the Biomedical Research Community Respond to the Animal
Rights Movement?" The other panel discussion was on "Can the Number of
Research Animals be Reduced?" The participants were Drs. Myron Arlen,
Robert Barker, Donald S. Fredrickson, Andrew N. Rowan, James B.
Wyngaarden, and Mr. Fred Jerome.
. . . Human T-cell leukemia virus has been linked with adult T-cell
leukemia-lymphoma (ATLL), a tumor of mature T-cells that occurs at
elevated rates in southwestern Japan and in the Caribbean Basin. Human
T-cell leukemia virus (HTLV) or a closely related virus, has also been
found in varying proportions of healthy individuals of several species
of Old World monkeys. In the present study, conducted with macaques
from Taiwan and the New England Regional Primate Research Center,
antibodies to membrane antigens of HTLV-infected cells (HTLV-MA) were
found in 11 of 13 macaques with malignant lymmphoma or
lymphoproliferative disease but in only 7 of 95 healthy macaques. This
indicates that antibodies to HTLV are significantly associated with the
development of naturally occurring lymphoid neoplasms in at least some
species of nonhuman primates.
. . .A clinical case of keratoconjunctivitis sicca prompted a study to
determine normal values for the Schirmer tear test in rhesus monkeys.
Normal values for rhesus monkeys were calculated to be 6 to 24 mm
wetting (mean = 15.1) and it was determined that neither sex nor
ketamine had a statistically significant effect on these values.
. . .Four cases of spontaneous malignant lymmphoma and one of Hodgkin's
lymphoma in baboons at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research
were studied and described. These cases were in animals of both sexes
that varied in age from 6 to 25 years, and were in residence at the
Foundation from 2 to 24 years, during which time there was no known
exposure to carcinogenetic agents. Attempts to isolate an etiological
viral agent or demonstrate viral particles in lymphoid tissue were
unsuccessful.
. . .A severe and highly fatal disease occurred in African green
monkeys. The disease was marked by an extensive maculo-vesicular rash.
In fatal cases, multifocal necrosis and hemorrhage were found
characteristically in many organs and tissues. New cases of the disease
occurred over a 39-day period. Nine of 49 exposed African green monkeys
were affected and 5 of the 9 died. Four cynomolgus
(Macaca fascicularis) and 31 stumptailed monkeys (Macaca
arctoides)
which were exposed were not affected. Delta Herpesvirus
was isolated from affected African green monkeys. Stumptailed monkeys
housed in association with the African green monkeys, as well as those
housed elsewhere, had significant serum concentrations of neutralizing
antibodies to this agent.
. . .A syndrome of acquired immunodeficiency has been identified in a
group of rhesus monkeys which died at the California Primate Research
Center. Clinical evaluation of these animals revealed that 50% or more
had lymphadenopathy, weight loss, and diarrhea. At least 30% had
splenomegaly, fever, cutaneous abscesses and/or arthritis/myositis. Two
animals had fibrosarcomas. Anemia was seen in 19 animals, lymphopenia
in 14, granulocytopenia in 4 and thrombocytopenia in 3. Hepatitis was
diagnosed histopathologically in 13. Electrophoresis revealed
hypoproteinemia, hypoalbuminemia and hypogammaglobulinemia. Numerous
bacterial, protozoal, and viral agents were identified including
cytomegalovirus and leukocyte-associated herpesvirus. Pathologic
lesions included severe post-reactive depletion of lymphocytes in
germinal centers and paracortical regions of lymph nodes. Clinical and
pathologic changes indicate an acquired immunodeficiency syndrome which
has some similarities to AIDS in humans. This disease in monkeys may
provide a model for studying that disease.
. . .Since August 25, 1981, an outbreak of simian acquired
immunodeficiency syndrome (SAIDS) has been recognized in a single
outdoor corral housing 77 rhesus monkeys over a 16-month period. The
etiology of this syndrome is unknown but epidemiologic evidence suggests
an infectious agent. Thirty-two cases of SAIDS have been identified (31
female, 1 male), and 27 of these animals have died (case fatality rate
= 84%). Three of these deaths occurred among 13 infants born in the
corral. All 27 deaths were females. For animals in the original
cohort, sex was not a statistically significant risk factor. For
animals born in the corral, females were at greater risk. SAIDS
mortality rates were highest for animals entering the corral at less than
30 months of age and for animals born into the cage. The mortality rate
was lowest for animals entering the corral at greater than 30 months of
age. No significant associations were found for the factors weaning
history, cage-move history, parentage, generation, and medical history,
including history of bite-wound trauma. Nine of the original 64 animals
entering the corral on August 25, 1981, were previously associated with
a group of 110 rhesus monkeys occupying this same corral from September
1976 to August 1981. Though less dramatic, a similar pattern of
morbidity and high mortality was recognized retrospectively in this
group. The current outbreak would appear to be an extension of this
earlier protracted epidemic.
. . .Nine adult tree shrews, recently imported from West Malaysia were
visually examined for ectoparasites while under general anesthesia.
Three shrews were infested by the sucking louse,
Sathrax durus, and 6 shrews had louse ova belonging to this
species; 2 shrews had neither lice nor ova. A total of 20 adult female,
10 adult male, and 3 third instar nymphal lice were collected. Lice
were located on the head, flanks, and dorsal body of shrews while ova
were recorded mainly from the anterior flanks but also from some
adjacent host sites. The tree shrews appeared to tolerate the lice well
although louse vector capacity was not assessed. The last date that
lice were recorded from shrews was 22 days after colony set-up, and the
last date on which seemingly viable ova were recorded was 64 days after
set-up showing that the infestations were ultimately lost.
. . .Free-ranging rhesus macaques on the island of Cayo Santiago,
Puerto Rico, were surveyed for intestinal parasites for the first time
in over 40 years. Results were compared with the only previous study,
and the relationships between the prevalence of
Strongyloides and dominance rank, body weight, age, and matriline
examined in the sampled population.
. . .Some blood values of 86 lesser mouse lemurs maintained in
captivity are presented. These are comparable with those of other
prosimians: PCV 51.7%,
RBC 9.2 x 10-to-the-6th/cu-micrometer,
MCV 57.5
WBC 12,900/cu-mm, lymphocytes 59.7%, neutrophils 30.7%, monocytes 4.8%,
eosinophils 4.2%, basophils 0.6%. We noted no significant difference
between the sexes except that the percentage of lymphocytes was slightly
lower in the females (with a corresponding percentage of neurtrophils
slightly higher). The lymphocyte:neutrophil ratio decreases with age,
particularly in young animals; the hematocrit does not vary in adults.
. . .A jacket and tethering system was used to maintain chronic catheters
in monkeys, which provided catheter access and manipulability without
further restraint. Surgical placement of catheters and a temperature
probe allowed for a common cutaneous exit and interface with the jacket
and tether. Monkeys were fitted in a sterile leather or denim jacket
which was attached to a sterilized flexible stainless steel cable.
Through this conduit, an indwelling temperature probe, as well as
catheters from the internal jugular and femoral veins, were attached to
a swivel unit located on the upper portion of the cage. The internal
jugular catheter was used for the continuous infusion of support
solution. The catheter from the femoral vein was maintained with a
heparin lock and used for serial blood sampling. Using this system, it
was possible to obtain frequent blood samples and body temperature
readings, and to administer a continuous intravenous infusion without
chemical or excessive physical restraint. To date, 367 monkeys, 322
cynomolgus
(Macaca fascicularis), 16 rhesus (Macaca mulatta), and 21 African
green
(Ceropithecus aethiops) have been studied using this procedure.
. . .Blood samples were drawn and body measurements taken from healthy
adult and juvenile common marmosets which had been housed under
controlled environmental conditions for a minimum of 2 years. Blood was
analyzed for serum biochemical and hematological constituents.
. . .Blood chemistry values were collected over a three-year period
from at least 10 colony-born and 24 wild-born apparently normal common
marmosets. BUN, SGOT, creatinine, calcium, phosphorus, alkaline
phosphatase, protein, albumin, cholesterol, triglycerides, uric and
glucose values were determined. A statistical comparison of baseline
values was made between wild-born, colony-born, male and female
marmosets. Also, the same comparison was made between common marmosets
and cotton-top tamarins, white lipped tamarins and human subjects.
. . .The activated coagulation time tested provided a rapid yet
accurate measurement of the intrinsic clotting system in rhesus monkey
whole blood. Other advantages of this test included reproducibility, no
requirement for control samples, low cost and commercial availability.
The mean activated coagulation time value for 60 normal rhesus monkeys
was 96 seconds with a range of 77 to 125 seconds. There were no
significant differences due to sex, venipuncture site and time of blood
collection.
. . .Ophthalmoscopic observations were made of the ocular fundus of
242 apparently healthy, colony-born, anesthetized
Macaca fascicularis aged from 0 to 90 days. Regular and fluorescein
photographs were taken with Kowa RC-II ophthalmoscope-camera by using
daylight typed color film. The
following findings were obtained in each age
class: (1) Retinal color was salmon pink with 0 to 3-day-old neonates,
salmon pink and blue to green with 7- to 14-day-old animals and blue to
green with 60- to 90-day-old monkeys. (2) As regards optic disc, 0- to
14-day-old animals were observed to be light orange in color, and the
infant aged more than 28-days showed orange color. (3) Retinal arteries
and veins were lightly reddish in color with every age class. (4)
Macular color was salmon pink on 0-day-old cases, slightly dark in
3-day-old neonates and very dark after 14-days of age. (5) Light
retinal reflex was noted in 0- to 7-day-old animals. The reflex was
observable in 14-day-old animals without any case of exception. (6)
Retinal hemorrhages were recorded in 22 (67%) of 36 neonates born in
natural condition and 10 (33%) of 30 neonates born by Cesarean section.
. . .Experiments were undertaken to determine whether the decline in
the ejaculation frequency of old male rhesus macaques is due to a
decrease in physical capacity. In the first experiment, the capacity of
old males to ejaculate in a series of biweekly tests were investigated.
Six old (18-23 yr) and 6 young (8-12 yr) male rhesus were
given 10-min tests of sexual behavior with 9 different females chosen at
random. The old males were also given 10-min tests with a preferred
female, 1339. When the old males were tested with 9 different females,
their sexual performance (e.g., frequency of ejaculation) was
significantly less than that of the young males, but their performance
was comparable to that of young males in 9 tests with female 1339. In a
second experiment, the capacity of old males to show repeated
ejaculations over a 3-hr period was tested. The same old and young
males were given a 3-hr test with female 1339. The sexual performances
(number of ejaculatory series completed and behavior displayed within
each ejaculatory series) of the old males did not differ significantly
from those of the young. Also, no significant differences in behavior
were observed between young and old males during the first 10 min of the
3-hr tests. Our data show that the decline in the sexual performance of
the old rhesus males is not due to a decreased capacity to perform
sexually or to physical debilitation.
. . .Increased concern for maintenance of endangered species in
captivity has prompted increased interest in monitoring the fertility of
captive animals. This paper outlines methods for discrimination between
lack of reproduction and infertility, and provides guidelines for
identification of physiological causes of infertility. The role of
environment in infertility is discussed, and suggestions are made for
correction of environmental deficiencies. A brief review of the
potential for infectious infertility is followed by an outline of
appropriate treatments. It appears that a primary cause of
physiological infertility in the gorilla is spermatogenic arrest, and it
also appears possible that this defect may be corrected by alterations
in environment and management. In summary, the outlook for continued
breeding of great apes in captivity is bright, and efforts in the past
few years to identify and alleviate potential causes for infertility and
nonreproduction are beginning to yield good results.
. . .The reproductive performance of three species of Callitrichidae
housed under identical conditions, including relatively spacious caging
and visual screening was compared. The three species were
Callithrix jacchus, Saguinus fuscicollis, and Saguinus oedipus.
Callithrix jacchus was the most reliable breeder, with the lowest
percentage of stillborn and the highest post-weaning survival. While
the reproductive performance of
S. oedipus was better than that generally reported for other
colonies, the reproductive performance of the
Saguinus species was still poorer than that of C. jacchus. The
two
Saguinus species did not differ significantly in either percentage
of stillborn or post-weaning survival. None of the species showed
infertility due to lactation, but the mean inter-birth interval was
significantly longer for
S. oedipus than for either C. jacchus or S. fuscicollis.
. . .A comparison of the age and season at first parturition was made
for spring-born female rhesus monkeys and for females born in the fall
to mothers who had been laboratory-housed before being transferred
outdoors. The data suggested that season may influence the timing of
sexual maturation in rhesus moneys kept outside in such a way that the
occurrence of first ovulation is restricted to the fall and winter
months.
. . .A summary of published reports of breeding patterns
across the genus
Macaca. Patterns range from strictly seasonal to non-seasonal.
Data on sexual behavior and birth patterns are presented which confirm
previous reports of non-seasonality for
Macaca arctoides. In a captive colony, 63 births were recorded,
some during every month of the year. Heterosexual
mounting activity was recorded over a 2-yr period and occurred during
every month of that period. It is clear
M. arctoides does not exhibit the seasonal cyclicity observed in
some other macaque species.
. . .The silvered leaf monkey from South Kalimantan (Borneo), Indonesia
is a natural host for a variety of filarial nematodes including
Brugia malayi and Wuchereria kalimantani. Experimental studies
show that it is host for
W. bancrofti, a filarial nematode causing elephantiasis in man.
Presbytis cristatus is a gregarious primate of primary and
secondary forests, roaming in troops of 20-30 members. Primarily a
fruit and leaf eater under natural conditions, this monkey can adapt to
a laboratory diet of commercial monkey chow supplemented with fruits and
vegetables. Troops, led by an alpha male, immediately respond to
protect their young during stressful or dangerous situation. Infants
are born singly and are bright orange. Transition to the adult grey
and black coloration begins 3 to 5 mos after birth. Silvered leaf
monkeys can be readily trapped. Initially they are aggressive and will
attack but become tractable several days after capture. Reaching upward
is an important feeding behavior of the silvered leaf monkey and they
will not feed from the floor of the cage. In the laboratory they are
nonaggressive and lend themselves to various procedures such as blood
drawing and examination. Silvered leaf monkeys travel well in
commercial animal transport cages. In the United States they are not an
endangered species and can be readily imported. In Indonesia they are
not protected by law and can be exported.
. . .This note is a reply to a recent one in the same journal that
attempted to show that "Callithricidae", not the current Callitrichidae,
is the correct family name for marmosets and tamarins.
. . .With the help of local tribal people, the author found a group of
5-10 lion-tailed macaques
(Macaca silenus) in south-west India in the extreme northeast of
the Anaimalai Hills (Kerala State), which is a little outside their
known range. The find of even so small a group is important because
this species is considered on the verge of extinction.
. . .Among other things, the author notes that the population of the
hanuman langur
(Presybtis entellus) is dwindling fast in Bangladesh. They
sometimes damage orchards and gardens and so are treated as pests by
villagers in the areas the author visited (Jessore and Kushtia
districts). The hoolock gibbon
(ulluk) Hylobates hoolock, also endangered, was once common all over
the northern and eastern forests. Their position now is most precarious
in the forests of Sylhet Division, where habitat destruction has forced
them to live in isolated pockets of semi-evergreen forests. Each pocket
is separated from the neighboring ones by a tea garden or shrubbery, an
impassable land barrier for an arboreal species, and there is no genetic
exchange. The forests of Chittagong, Cox's Bazar and Hill Tracts
Divisions are being systematically clear-felled.
. . .All species of gorilla
(Gorilla spp.) are now listed in the category "Endangered" on the
U.S. Endangered Species list, and on Appendix I (their most endangered
category) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species. Nonetheless, trade in gorillas continues. This is of concern
to wildlife conservationists and protectionists because the usual
method of catching gorilla infants for trade (shooting of mothers and
protective adults) is both detrimental to species survival and inhumane.
Recent attempts by three U. S. Zoos to import wild-caught gorillas, the
recent arrival of a baby gorilla from Africa at a Canadian zoo, and the
use by dealers of a Polish zoo for "laundering" of wild-caught gorillas,
have drawn international attention and concern to the problems caused
by the continuing trade
in young gorillas. This special report brings together details of
recent developments concerning the gorilla trade.
Address Changes
Judith E. Schrier, Psychology Department, Box 1853, Brown University
Providence, Rhode Island 02912. (Phone: 401-863-2511)
Judith_Schrier@brown.edu
Service Grant RR-00419 from the Animal Resources Program,
Division of Research Resources, N.I.H.
Consulting Editor: Morris L. Povar
Managing Editor Helen Janis Shuman
