Abstracts - EUPRIM-NET Courses

Lecture Abstracts

Contents

PrimBio 01/02 (Course of Essentials) - Course on General Primate Biology
(01-04/02/2010)

PrimBio 13/10 - Stress and its Implication on Primate Welfare
(13-16/10/2008)

PrimBio 04/02 - Primate Nutrition
(04-07/02/2008)

PrimBio 14/01 - Environmental Enrichment, Handling; Non-invasive Methods; Ethical and Legal Aspects of Primate Research
(14-08/01/2008)

PrimBio 26/11 - Primate Diseases and Health Problems
(26-29/11/2007)

PrimBio 29/10 - Primate Behaviour, Environmental Enrichment, and Ethical Aspects
(29/10 - 01/11/2007)

PrimBio 24/10 - Primate Social Systems, Reproduction, and Breeding
(24-26/10/2007)

PrimBio 01/02 (Course of Essentials) - Course on General Primate Biology
(01-04/02/2010)

Integrative Approaches to the Study of Primate Infectious Disease: Implications for Biodiversity Conservation and Global Health

Tom Gillespie , Global Health Institute and Departments of Environmental Studies and Environmental and Occupational Health, Emory University

The close phylogenetic relationship between humans and nonhuman primates, coupled with the exponential expansion of human populations and human activities within primate habitats, has resulted in exceptionally high potential for pathogen exchange. Emerging infectious diseases are a consequence of this process that has the capacity to threaten global health and drive primate population declines. Integration of standardized empirical data collection, state-of-the-art diagnostics, and the comparative approach offers the opportunity to create a baseline for patterns of infection in wild primate populations; to better understand the role of disease in primate ecology, behavior, and evolution; and to examine how anthropogenic effects alter the zoonotic potential of various pathogenic organisms. These lectures will review pathogens of importance in wild primates and present technologies and approaches for integrative studies of primate disease. The attached papers will provide good background for participants (paper 1 and paper 2).

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Key issues in environmental enrichment – satisfying behavioural needs

Hannah Buchanan-Smith, University of Stirling, Scotland

Behavioural needs can be divided into ultimate needs, such as food, water, shelter, and sex without which the animals would die or fail to reproduce, and proximate needs (also known as behavioural/ethological/psychological needs) without which the animals would not die, nor lose reproductive success but may suffer. Basic mammalian behavioural needs include social companionship; security; an opportunity for challenge and to seek information, and for achievement. To offer such opportunities the social and physical environment should be complex, and provide opportunities for choice and control. This presentation will address such key issues in the care of captive primates to help ensure their needs are satisfied.

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PrimBio 13/10 - Stress and its Implication on Primate Welfare
(13-16/10/2008)

Neurobiology of the stress response

Eberhard Fuchs, DPZ, Göttingen, Germany

The brain is the key organ of the response to stress. It reacts in a complex, orchestrated manner that is related to the activation / inhibition of structures involved in sensory, motor, autonomic, cognitive and emotional processes. Thus, the brain finally determines what is threatening and, therefore, potentially stressful, as well as the physiological and behavioral responses which can be either adaptive or maladaptive.

Within the brain neuronal circuits that respond to stress are strongly dependent on the type of stressor. Even in the mature differentiated central nervous system neurons and glia cells undergo permanent dynamic changes. The resulting structural plasticity of the brain, its ability to change and to respond reversibly to environmental challenges has been exemplified on the hippocampal formation, a brain structure important for learning, memory, emotional processing, and involved in the control of vegetative and autonomic circuits. The effects of stress on the hippocampal formation seem to range from initial deficits in cognitive and memory function, possibly mediate by a significant and reversible retraction of apical dendrites of pyramidal neurons in the CA3 region, to an increased vulnerability to metabolic insults, reduced neurogenesis and reversible reduction of the hippocampal volume as a whole.

The effects of stress on central nervous processes in non-human primates are demonstrated by studies performed in marmoset monkeys antenatally over-exposed to the synthetic glucocorticoid hormone dexamethasone and in rhesus monkeys derived from stress pregnancies. Our findings indicate that the prenatal environment affects behavior, dysregulates neuroendocrine systems, and influences the brain (hippocampus) of non-human primates.
Links:
www.cnl-dpz.de

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Stress response of the immune system

Volker Stefanski, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, Germany

The immune system is the major defence system in vertebrates, fighting bacterial, viral, and parasite infection. However, the immune system does not only react to pathogens but is also very sensitive to many other environmental influences. During the past three decades, it became increasingly clear that also social and non-social stressors can substantially alter the activity of the immune system in mammals. The highly complex immune system consists of innate and adaptive, as well as of humoral and cellular components. These various levels are an important aspect for stress studies, since a certain stressor can have a quite differential impact on different immune subsystems. Acute social stress in rodents, for example, often suppresses specific immune functions such as the ability of lymphocytes to react to an external challenge (e.g. lymphocyte proliferation), while in contrast, many aspects of the innate immunity such as numbers of granulocytes in the blood and phagocytic activity are often enhanced under these conditions.
Primarily based on examples of small mammals, I shall illustrate (1) some of the typical effects of social stressors on the immune system in wild and captive animals, (2) the modulatory role of individual factors such as previous experience on the immunological outcome, (3) main principles of the underlying neuroendocrine-immune network, and (4) the potential consequences of stress-induced immune modulation for disease susceptibility.
Links:
http://www.izw-berlin.de
http://www.old.uni-bayreuth.de/departments/tphys

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Walking into the new enclosure – apes were relocated without anaesthesia within the Zoological Garden Frankfurt

Verena Behringer, Dept. Ethology, Animalphysiology Institution, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany

Even in zoos, animals must move out sometimes. Relocation into different enclosures is always a stressful event in an animal’s life. Usually, the animals are calmed by sedatives or narcotic in order to lower the risk during transport for the animal and for the human. However, individuals that are old, ill or have babies may have problems due to anaesthesia.
The stress for an animal when relocated should be reduced to the lowest. Stress can be measured in the amount of stress hormones in the animal’s body. The announced talk will first present a technique to collect stress hormones in great apes (Bonobos, Orangutans and Gorillas) in a non-invasive way. Secondly, stressful events will be exemplified. At last, we will see behind the curtain of the specific relocation of the great apes in the zoo Frankfurt. 26 great apes moved into their new enclosure without any anaesthesia. Did the relocation stress the animals without being calmed down? Can anaesthesia decrease the stress in the animal when relocated?
Links:
http://www.uni-giessen.de/biologie/tierphysio/
http://www.zoo-frankfurt.de/

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Stress hormone receptors in the primate brain

Christopher Pryce, Basel, Switzerland

The corticosteroid hormones are major modulators of the gene expression that maintains homeostasis and enables responses to environmental stressors. Corticosteroids achieve these functions by binding to their receptors, of which there are two types, the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) and the glucocorticoid receptor (GR). The MR is expressed in specific cell types in specific organs, whereas the GR is expressed throughout the body. Both MR and GR are expressed in the brain, and both exhibit important polymorphisms. MR and GR are intra-cellular transcription-factor receptors, and are also membrane-bound. Most of our knowledge about the ontogeny, distrubtion and functions of MR and GR in the brain is derived from rodent studies. Although there is a high level of homology between non-primate mammals and primates in this respect, there are also some important differences, e.g. relatively high levels of MR and GR expression in the neocortex relative to limbic regions, in primates versus non-primate mammals. This means that detailed understanding of stress hormone regulation of the primate brain requires primate studies. Under conditions of homeostasis and acute stress, the levels of corticosteroid hormones that can be measured in physiological fluids, e.g. CSF, blood, urine, very probably provide an accurate indirect estimate of MR and GR binding and activation. However, under conditions of chronic stress and high corticosteroid levels, as can be experienced at different stages of the life span, there is increasing evidence for development of MR and GR insensitivity to corticosteroids. Under these circumstances, studies at the receptor level are essential to biomedical understanding of the role of stress hormones in health and disease.

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Stress and its impact on behaviour and cognition

Christopher Pryce, Basel, Switzerland

Stress is considered to be one of the major determinants of mental state in all mammals, but understanding the neuropsychological processes involved in, and the underlying causal neurobiological mechanisms of, this stress-mental state relationship is extremely complex. Progress is dependent on breaking the complexity down into well-defined entities. Neuropsychological entities that are affected by stress include sensitivity to reward, sensitivity to aversive stimuli, attention and memory. Methods for the study and measurement of these processes have traditionally been very different in non-primate mammals (e.g. mouse, rat), non-human primates (e.g. common marmoset and rhesus macaque), and humans. However, using psychological test paradigms that are consistent across species, there are now a number of examples which demonstrate that it is possible to study important neuropsychological processes in a translational manner. This translational approach allows for extrapolation of findings between species, and highlights both the similarities and differences between species. Another important consideration in the study of stress and behaviour is that neuropsychological tests require training and, because stress can inhibit learning, it is important that the conditions of training and testing minimize stress. Here, procedures such as home cage training and testing can be beneficial. With regard to neurobiological mechanisms, it is important to differentiate between acute stress versus chronic stress in terms of their effects on behaviour and cognition: this is true with respect to primate well-being and welfare, as well as to specific studies that aim to increase understanding and treatment of neuropsychiatric disease.

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Stress in the Wild

J.C. Beehner, Gelada Research Project, Core Assay Facility, University of Michigan

Like humans, animals suffer from stress when they are socially isolated or subjected to uncontrollable or unpredictable traumatic events. For example, monogamous rodents show physiological signs of stress if they are separated from their mates. Similarly rats and dogs that are subjected to intermittent shocks experience more stress if they are unable to predict or control the rate at which they receive shocks. Under natural conditions, however, animals are seldom subjected to social isolation or stressors such as shocks, so the ecological validity of these observations is unclear. Indeed, until the advent of Robert Sapolsky’s pioneering research in the 1980s on stress in wild male baboons (Papio anubis), almost nothing was known about the causes and alleviation of stress in wild animals. And although there have now been numerous studies of stress and coping mechanisms in wild male non-human primates, female non-human primates have received very little attention.
In this lecture, I will review the causes and alleviation of stress in wild female primates, focusing in particular on baboons. I should point out at the outset that there have been surprisingly few studies of stress in female primates generally and wild female primates specifically. Nonetheless, a review of stress in wild female primates is timely, in part because wild populations of primates offer a better model for human stress than captive ones. First, females in natural populations of monkeys typically live in large social groups that consist of both kin and non-kin, maintaining relationships that are both cooperative and competitive. These societies create a context for both increased social stress and opportunities for its alleviation. Second, females living under natural conditions are confronted with a variety of environmental stressors and traumatic events that not only present a challenge to reproduction and survival but also have the potential to damage an individual’s social relationships. For example, a female baboon who sees a lion kill a close relative experiences not just a physiological but also a psychological stressor: her social network has now been damaged. Although some captive colonies approach wild groups in size and social complexity, studies of stress in female monkeys have typically been conducted on individuals living either in newly established and unstable groups or in isolation from their companions – contexts that are highly stressful and very artificial.
Throughout the lecture, I argue that many causes of stress in female monkeys – and all of its alleviation – are fundamentally social. Stress is influenced by events that threaten a female’s survival and reproductive success, including in particular predation and the immigration of a potentially infanticidal male. Like humans, female monkeys rely on a stable social network to cope with stress. The presence of kin or close companions per se does not alleviate stress; rather it is the strength of a female’s social bonds with a small number of specific companions. Females whose grooming networks are focused on a few individuals show lower levels of stress than females whose grooming networks are diffuse and relatively unselective. Females experience significant increases in stress when this network is damaged by the death of a close grooming partner, and they take active steps to seek out and identify new partners. The causes and amelioration of stress in female monkeys appear to be subtle and complex. It is the nature and quality of a female’s social relationships, rather than sociality alone, that allows a female to cope with and manage stress.

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PrimBio 04/02 - Primate Nutrition
(04-07/02/2008)

Metabolism and Digestive Physiology

Mike L. Power, National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., USA

Animals eat food; they need nutrients. Nutrients are essential, but many are also toxic in high concentrations; and food contains many things, good and bad, besides nutrients. The function of our digestive physiology is to render food into nutrients safely and efficiently. Eating requires a complex set of coordinated physical, physiological and behavioral actions. Of course when we eat we don’t really have to think about it. We do it easily and naturally; but when we consider it as scientists we can see that eating is a very complex process. In this lecture we are going to follow the journey of food from the mouth to the anus. The different functions of the different segments of the gut, the variation among primates, and how that variation relates to diet will be examined. Digestive function in callitrichid monkeys will be explored in greater detail. Once food is digested and the nutrients are absorbed they can be used in metabolism. Metabolism is the totality of the chemical processes necessary for life; obviously too large a subject to be covered in a short lecture. The focus of the lecture will be on primate energy metabolism. Primate resting metabolic rate will be examined in relation to body mass, temperature, circadian rhythm, and phylogeny. The relationship between resting metabolic rate and energy requirement will be explored, as well as the other components of energy requirement. Finally, primate lactation and milk composition will be examined. Milk is every mammal’s first food; but milks vary quite dramatically among mammals. The sources of variation in primate milks will be explored, and what can and cannot be learned about primate nutrient requirements from their milk will be discussed.

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Feeding Enrichment in Primates

Inbal Badihi, Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, Scotland

There are two main approaches to environmental enrichment. The first one is the natural approach, which attempts to mimic the wild habitat in captivity to provide natural stimulation for captive animals. The second approach is that of behavioural engineering, which provides artificial devices that the animals can operate to receive a reward. Various feeding enrichment techniques are appropriate for both approaches. Providing captive primates with more natural foods and more opportunities to express foraging behaviour and food processing activities is one of the easiest ways to mimic features of the natural habitats. Further, food is a primary positive reward and can be used to encourage non-human primates to perform different behaviours or to use various devices. Nevertheless, feeding enrichment and the use of food as a reward are not always desired and may lead to new problems such as obesity. Different methods of feeding enrichment will be presented and discussed together with the pros and cons and these techniques. Participants will be encouraged to discuss feeding enrichment opportunities in their own facilities, and how to implement them.

PrimBio 14/01 - Environmental Enrichment, Handling; Non-invasive Methods; Ethical and Legal Aspects of Primate Research
(14-08/01/2008)

Environmental Enrichment for Captive Primates

Hannah Buchanan-Smith, Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, Scotland

It is vital to provide high-quality captive conditions for primates not only to ensure their good welfare, but for the quality of research conducted upon them. In these presentations over two days, I shall outline the goals of enrichment to improve the quality of life of the primates, and their ability to cope with challenges. The behavioural needs of primates may be particularly difficult to cater for in captive environments due to the social and physical complexity of their natural habitats and their intelligence. Sophisticated methods to prevent fear, boredom, and stress are required. I shall use numerous examples of social, occupational, physical, sensory and nutritional enrichment, in a range of primates most commonly kept in laboratories, and outline the theoretical underpinnings of successful enrichment techniques (such as predictability, complexity, choice and control). Techniques to monitor how successful the enrichment is, and to determine the significance of enrichment will be covered. The organisation of effective enrichment programmes will be described, together with approaches to solve behavioural management problems. The barriers to implementing more successful enrichment will be explored, within the scientific framework and time constraints within busy laboratories. There will be a wide variety of presentation styles, including videos, and breakout group discussions to allow interchange of ideas and active engagement. Participants should leave with enthusiasm, and equipped with new ideas, and the techniques and skills at hand, to return to facilities to implement a wide range of enrichment for primates in their care.

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Handling and Training of Primates

Karolina Westlund, SMI, Sweden

In later years, legislation regarding the housing and care of laboratory primates have undergone a substantial revision (ETS 123, 2004; EEC Directorate C, 2002). Breeding standards, the importance of social housing and the use of environmental enrichment to promote species-specific behaviours have been identified as important areas where improvements may be made, apart from the obvious changes such as using larger cages to accomodate animals. Furthermore, stressful handling of nonhuman primates in conjunction with blood sampling, injections and other experimental procedures is argued to have a negative impact on the animal welfare, and is also recognised as a potential confounding factor in biomedical research. Positive Reinforcement Training (PRT) of the animals for participation in such procedures is proposed to dramatically reduce the stress level for the animals, promote more reliable experimental results, and lead to an increased safety, both for animals and personnel (see for instance Reinhardt: Training nonhuman primates to cooperate during handling procedures: a review. Animal technology, 48: 55-73, 1997). It has been pointed out by the Scientific Committee on Animal Health and Animal Welfare within Directorate C of the European Commission that training of animals “...promotes safety and valid and efficient data collection, diminishing data variability and reducing the number of animals required to obtain statistically significant results.” (The welfare of non-human primates used in research, 17 December 2002).

This full day lecture will give an introduction to animal training using Operant Conditioning. I explain what negative and positive reinforcement is and describe the two most commonly used techniques to train desired behaviours (targeting and shaping). I also discuss how to get rid of undesired behaviours (using different strategies such as extinction, time outs and training an incompatible behaviour), and I elaborate on why punishment is generally not a good idea to use as a training tool. One important aspect of animal training is getting control of the behaviour, and I go over how to add a cue (tell the animal which behaviour to perform) when training. In addition, I give some tips and ideas of how to get started. We also do a problem solving discussion. Overall I show a lot of videos of animals being trained and doing behaviours. We also engage in a game called the Training Game, where we get to practice our newfound skills – on each other! Finally, the participants practice writing shaping plans – detailed instructions on how a particular behaviour should be trained.

Training is easy but not simple. It includes a vocabulary that might intimidate a new trainer. Before the lecture, a terminology list will be given to the participants, who should familiarize themselves with the expressions before the lecture.

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Non-invasive Endocrine Assessment in Primatology: Methodologies and Application

Michael Heistermann, Department of Reproductive Biology, German Primate Centre

The ability to accurately assess reproductive function and physiological status in primates is important to our understanding of many aspects of primate biology. Since primates are generally difficult to handle, potentially dangerous and sensitive to physical and social disruption, scientific and animal welfare as well as practical considerations emphasise the need for a non-invasive approach to physiological assessment. In this respect, methods based on the measurement of hormones and their metabolites excreted into urine and faeces have proven particularly useful as they enable to generate information on an individual´s physiology without the need for animal capture and/or restraint. Moreover, excreta can be collected on a frequent basis and for prolonged periods of time, thus facilitating long-term physiological assessment with a minimum of animal disturbance.
To date, there have been two main areas of application of this technology within the field of primatology. Firstly, measurement of excreted hormone metabolites have been used for monitoring physiological status in zoo/captive-housed animals as a means of assisting the management and breeding of primates in captivity. In this respect, endocrine monitoring of reproductive function based on the quantification of sex hormone metabolites has generated considerable comparative data as well as information of diagnostic value on which management decisions (e.g. pairing of animals, transfers, timed matings etc.) can be based and their outcome evaluated. In addition, measurement of excreted stress hormones is being used to evaluate the impact of management decisions and housing conditions on the welfare of primates in captivity. Secondly, with the recognition that a more complete understanding of primate behaviour requires information on underlying physiological mechanisms, considerable progress has been made in combining non-invasive endocrine methodologies with behavioural observations to provide a more integrated approach to studies on primate behavioural ecology. This area of so-called “field endocrinology” has primarily been made possible through the developments in faecal hormone analysis techniques that permit to collect long-term physiological data from individual animals living in natural settings. In this respect, application of non-invasive endocrine methodologies has provided new insights into processes of physiological adaptation and reproductive strategies in wild living primates.
The main factors determining the reliability and practicality of these technologies are those related to sample quality, laboratory procedures and validation of measurements. The latter is particularly important since species can differ markedly with respect to the preferred route of hormone excretion (urine versus faeces), but also in terms of metabolism of hormones prior to elimination from the body. This dictates the need for a careful biochemical and biological validation of hormone measurement for each species in order to ensure that the information to be generated is reliable and biologically meaningful. In addition, knowledge of the temporal relationship between hormone excretion and a given physiological event is essential for correct interpretation and use of information obtained.
In this talk, the methodologies and areas of application of non-invasive endocrine assessment in primatology will be briefly reviewed. The first part will deal mainly with methodological aspects involved in urinary and faecal hormone analysis, including information on species differences in hormone metabolism and patterns of excretion as well as possibilities for validating hormone measurements in the different fields of application. In the second part of the talk, examples, mainly from our own work, will be presented to illustrate i) the potential of non-invasive methodologies as a diagnostic tool in the area of captive management and breeding and ii) its value in different areas of field primatological research which represents a focus of the work in our department.

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Telemetry in Monkey Neurophysiology - Remote Monitoring of Neuronal Brain Signals

Alexander Gail, Cognitive Neurosciences Department, Sensorimotor Group, German Primate Center

Analysis of neuronal brain activity in awake and active primates is one of the key methods in modern system neuroscience. The temporally and spatially precise registration of the activity of individual neurons with microelectrodes is essential for understanding the neuronal basis of brain function, aiming to explain skills like sensory processing and perception, motor planning and motor control, as well as complex cognitive behavior like decision making and social interaction. Current electrophysiological techniques allow the registration of electrical activity of individual neurons in movement restrained animals only, since transmission of neural signals from the brain to the computer and control signals for head-mounted electrode positioning system are wire-based. Using novel technologies in wireless signal transmission we develop a head-mounted device suited to remotely record neural brain activity from multiple electrodes in freely moving monkeys, including wireless control of electrode positions. The development and refinement of wireless techniques will help to facilitate acquisition of neural data not readily available from non-restrained animals. Wireless multi-channel recordings of brain activtiy will be a key feature of future implantable brain-machine interfaces needed for neuroprosthetic devices. They will also allow new research questions to be addressed in freely moving animals, The proposed approach thereby can also provide important contributions to the 3 R-concept of Reduction, Refinement, and Replacement.

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Non-invasive Measurement of Blood Pressure in Marmoset Monkeys

Christina Schlumbohm, Clinical Neurobiology Laboratory, German Primate Center

In the EU funded project EUPEAH a new method was developed to measure blood pressure in common marmoset monkeys under laboratory conditions. Compared to humans and pet animals marmoset monkeys have much higher heart rates (up to 450 per min). Commercially available blood pressure devices for small animals or children are overstrained with this high frequency. Blood pressure measurements in small primates until now were only possible with implantable transmitters. If implantation is successful blood pressure recordings can be carried out for a limited time period, depending on the used transmitter model and on patency of the catheter which is inserted into the abdominal aorta. In contrast, with the cuff method no lesions occur in the experimental animals and blood pressure can be studied over long time periods (years). The only precondition for valid oscillometric blood pressure measurements are the proper customization of the experimental animals. However, depending on the experimental approach both methods have their pros and cons.
Physiological aspects of blood pressure regulation will be presented. The outcome of oscillometric and telemetric blood pressure measurements will be compared. Advantages and disadvantages of both methods will be discussed. Applicability of the method of oscillometric blood pressure measurement for research purposes will be demonstrated.

PrimBio 26/11 - Primate Diseases and Health Problems
(26-29/11/2007)

Diseases and Parasites of Wild Primates

Thomas Gillespie, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign , US

A diversity of viruses, bacteria, protozoa, helminths, fungi, and arthropods have been identified as causes of both epidemic mortality and chronic disease in wild primates. Additionally, many of these pathogens are zoonotic, presenting unique challenges for public and global health. However, knowledge of infectious diseases and their transmission in wild primates remains limited. This workshop will provide an overview of pathogens of importance in wild primate populations and describe approaches and techniques for detecting such pathogens in a field setting.

Further reading: Thomas R. Gillespie "Noninvasive Assessment of Gastrointestinal Parasite Infections in Free-Ranging Primates", International Journal of Primatology, 2006, 27( 4)

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Parasites of Non-human Primates

Manfred Brack, formerly Pathology Department, DPZ

An extensive list of more than 500 species of protozoa, nematodes, trematodes, cestodes and arthropods parasitizing in nonhuman primates is provided according to literature references and own experiences. Parasites occurring also in man are particularly labelled.
The descriptions focus mainly on the epidemiology, life cycles and diseases of the most important parasites, but do not go too far into the morphological details of the parasites beyond the genus level. The parasites explained more closely are Entamoeba histolytica, leptomyxids, resp. Balamuthia mandrillaris, Balantidium coli, Giardia lamblia, Trypanosoma cruzi, the plasmodia, Hepatocystis ssp., Toxoplasma gondii, Strongyloides spp., Oesophagostomids, Trichostrongylids (esp. Molineus spp.), Metastrongylids (Angiostrongylus spp., Filaroides spp.), Baylisascaris procyonis, Spirurids (esp. Trichospirura leptostoma , Gongylonema pulchrum), Filaria, Trichinelloidea (esp. Capillaria hepatica), Acanthocephala, Schistosoma spp., Hydatids and lung mites.

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Health Problems for Humans working with Primates

Susanne Rensing, Covance Laboratories GmbH, Münster, Germany

Zoonotic diseases are of concern in a variety of taxa that are maintained in zoological facilities, ranging from zoos, circuses, laboratories, pet owners to wildlife. The taxonomic group of nonhumane primates (NHPs) includes Prosimians, New World Monkeys, Old World Monkeys as well as Great Apes.
NHPs and humans share a number of diseases, some or more can cause serious or fatal diseases in humans or vice versa. Professional practice about animal handling as well as tissue or blood, wearing of appropriate Personnel Protective Equipment (PPE) should be included in individual occupational nonhuman primate safety policies and training protocols to avoid disease transmission.
An overview about the most common diseases, risk assessment and management based on scientific data and epidemiological principles is given.

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Anaesthesia & Anaesthetic Management

Gerco Braskamp, Biomedical Primate Research Centre, BPRC, Rijswijk, The Netherlands

- Can Animals feel Pain?
Whether animals can feel pain has been a controversial issue for many years. Animals and humans share similar mechanisms of pain detection, have similar areas of the brain involved in processing pain and show similar pain behaviors, but it is difficult to assess how animals actually experience pain.
Pain = An unpleasant Sensory and Emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage Prevention and alleviation of pain and stress in laboratory animals is an ethical imperative.
Animal species differ in how they manifest distress, whether from pain or from other sources and this complicates its recognition.
Veterinarians and researchers should identify and eliminate sources of pain and distress.
This might, indirectly, help to reduce the number of animals needed for experimental purposes; uncontrolled pain or distress can increase the variability in experimental data and so require the use of more animals in a study for it to achieve statistical significance.

- Anaesthesia & Anaesthetic Management
The use of safe and effective anaesthetic techniques can have a major influence on the welfare of animals. Improvement of anaesthetic techniques should be considered an essential aspect of the refinement of experimental methods.
If animals must be used for experimental purposes, pain and distress should be reduced to an absolute minimum. (Pain=stress=release of ACTH and abnormal behaviour)
It is the responsibility of veterinarians and researchers to review their current anaesthetic practices and to introduce improvements whenever possible.
Following the administration of an anaesthetic, it is essential to assess that the required depth of anaesthesia has been achieved. It is also helpful to monitor the vital signs of the patient and the function of any anaesthetic apparatus that is in use. Anaesthesia is not a simple thing, it’s important to understand the physiology of the animals you will be anaesthetized and to learn about the drugs you use.

- Handling & Restraint
Keeping in mind that nonhuman primates regardless of origin are still wild animals and will resist restraint. Direct contact with animals without the use of chemical restraint is not recommended. Personal protection equipment should always be worn when handling monkeys to help prevent the transmission of zoonotic diseases such as herpes B to the handler or the spread of tuberculosis (TB) to the primates. The amount of restraint (generally chemical) and its duration should be kept to the minimum necessary to complete the procedure. All necessary equipment and reagents for the procedure should be ready prior to restraint. The use of pre-anesthetic sedatives/tranquilizers will help reduce anxiety and the subsequent doses of other agents.

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Primate Pathology

Franz-Josef Kaup, DPZ

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Handling and Training of Primates for Health Examination and Experimentation

Karolina Westlund, SMI, Sweden

PrimBio 29/10 - Primate Behaviour, Environmental Enrichment, and Ethical Aspects (29/10 - 01/11/2007)

General Behaviour and Social Behaviour

Karolina Westlund, Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control, Solna

Understanding monkey behaviour is of vital importance when making welfare assessments and detecting early signs of incompatibility and potential future aggression in primate groups. This lecture will summarize the main characteristics of primate behaviour, giving examples from the most commonly used laboratory primate species. We will discuss the importance of knowing the natural history of the species in question, such as habitat (is the species tree-dwelling or ground-dwelling?), the composition of social groups (single-male or multi-male?), patterns of migration (male of female dispersal?). Furthermore, primate species are diverse in the choice of diet (insectivore, frugivore, folivore) and thus have different behaviours associated with food acquisition. They react differently to potential predation (vertical flight reactions, sentry behaviour, alarm calls) and need to be given species-appropriate opportunities to react accordingly to perceived threats. The concept of time budgets or activity budgets as a useful tool will be discussed. Primate communication (facial expressions, postures, vocalisations) will be summarized, as well as play, grooming behaviour, aggression and reconciliation. Recognizing and dealing with deviant behaviour and behavioural indicators of stress (overgrooming, hyperaggression, self-injurious behaviour, stereotypies, learned helplessness) will also be discussed. In addition, primate cognition will be briefly mentioned. The ethological perspective in captive primate management is important in order to increase welfare, reduce stress and produce a better research model.

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Environmental Enrichment for Captive Primates

Hannah Buchanan-Smith, Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, Scotland

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Ethics and Law

Hans Sigg, UZH/ETH Zürich, Switzerland

Some of the most important approaches to bioethics will be presented. The main principles of ethical reasoning are discussed and some specific topics are addressed: Are Primates different from other mammals? What is the ethical impact of it? Do cognitive abilities be prone for suffering? How to decide whether a certain experiment is ethically acceptable or should it be refused. The concept of the 3R will be discussed with a special focus on refinement of procedures and husbandry.
What are the legal requirements in different countries? The Section on Primates of the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals for Experimental Purposes (ETS123) will be regarded.

Further reading:
- Weatherall Report
- Appendix A of the European Convention ETS 123 (2006)

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Vocal and Visual Communication in Non-human Primates

Julia Fischer, Department of Cognitive Ethology, German Primate Centre

This lecture will provide an overview over some of the key issues that have been studied in the vocal and gestural communication in nonhuman primates, and what these findings may reveal about the evolution of speech. The main topics will be the question of ‘meaning’ in nonhuman primate communication, the ontogenetic development of sound production and comprehension, and the structure and function of gestural signals in nonhuman primates. Present findings suggest that listeners use calls as predictors of events in their surrounding, while there is less evidence that the callers intend to provide this information. This form of ‘functionally referential’ communication has now been described for a number of animal species, including birds, rodents, and carnivores. Unlike songbirds or some cetaceans, nonhuman primates appear unable to mimic novel sounds or incorporate new sounds into their repertoire. Nonhuman primates also lack a combinatorial system to generate new meanings from reordering the units of their communication, despite the fact that a number of studies have shown that listener responses to calls may vary with regard to the combination of different call types. Although nonhuman primates, in particular apes, have a large variety of gestural signals, there is no convincing evidence that such signals are used to communicate about ongoing events, either. That is, lack of motor control alone – as in the case of vocal production – does not account for the lack of linguistic abilities in monkeys and apes. In sum, there is a wide gap between the verbal production of human speech and the vocalizations of nonhuman primates. The findings highlight the importance of socio-cognitive skills that apparently also influence the communicative ability of primates. I will outline promising research questions that deal with the understanding of these constraints.

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Olfactory Communication

Eckhard W. Heymann, Department of Behavioural Ecology & Sociobiology, German Primate Centre

Primates are often considered as “microsmats”, and as a consequence the role of olfactory signals and olfactory communication in primates is commonly underestimated. This lecture will first provide an overview on the types and origins of olfactory signals emitted by primates. Olfactory signals are most often produced by specific scent glands, mainly located on the ventral surface of the body, but urine and perhaps saliva and faeces might also be involved. Then supposed or confirmed functions of olfactory communication are reviewed. For most primates for whom good data are available, multiple functions of olfactory communication in social and sexual processes have been suggested. Finally, some practical implications of olfactory communication in primates will be discussed.

PrimBio 24/10 - Primate Social Systems, Reproduction, and Breeding (24-26/10/2007)

Social Systems

Tony Weingrill, University Zürich, Switzerland

Although social organisation is extremely divers in primates, including non-gregarious species, the majority of primate species live in stable groups with an unmatched social complexity among mammals. In this course part, important primate specializations and features of life history will be introduced and its implications for social systems discussed. The social systems of various primate species will be compared by describing spatial distribution of group members, their dispersal mode and the relationship between individuals. Next, the socioecological paradigm will be introduced as a framework to explain what determines group size and composition. According to this model, food distribution and predation risk leads to the distribution and competitive strategies of females, while the number of males and the relationship among males is depended on the distribution of females. The third important selective force is intersexual conflict, which influences not only male-female relationships but also the distribution of both male and females.

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Primate Mating Systems

Joanna Setchell, Durham University, UK

The first lecture on primate mating systems will examine the diversity of primate mating systems, which range from monogamy (1m:1f), to multimale-multifemale (>1m:>2f), via polyandry (>1m,1f) and polygyny (1m,>1f). We will look at examples of each of these mating systems, and then examine the factors that shape their evolution. We will examine why most primates are polygynous, and hypotheses for the evolution of monogamy in some species. We will then examine why female primates show a strong tendency towards mating with multiple males, and have evolved various adaptations that make it difficult for males in multimale groups to monopolise fertile females. Examples from studies investigating the relationship between dominance and male mating success will be presented and the priority of access model will be introduced.

The second lecture deals with intrasexual competition, mate choice and conflict between the sexes. By competing with other males for access to females, dominant males increase their reproductive success by raising their number of mating partners, whereas females increase their reproductive success mainly by choosing mates that provide the best resources or genes for their offspring. Primate males are generally larger than females and there is much evidence for sexual coercion. Infanticide by males can be regarded as the most severe form of conflict between males and females. Infanticide has been observed in many primate species and other mammals. The adaptive nature of infanticide by males has been demonstrated in primates and we will discuss its importance as a selection pressure shaping the reproductive physiology of mothers as well as protective responses from likely fathers.

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Physiology of Reproduction

Polani Seshagiri, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India

Non-human primates are invaluable for studying human reproduction. However, the cellular and molecular regulation of early developmental events and of early pregnancy is some of the least studied aspects of primate reproduction. A dvances in this area are hampered because of the paucity of experimental animals and of their gametes-embryos. I n part, it is also due to the difficulty in studying early events of primate development. Macaque species such as Macaca mulatta (rhesus monkey) and Macaca radiata (bonnet monkey) are ideal models for studying primate reproductive physiology. They are quite suited for experimental biology in captive environments. Their ovarian cyclicity is similar to human females and also events of early development. Routine radio immuno assay measurements of circulating levels of hormones (estradiol 17ß, LH, progesterone and CG) are good predictors for monitoring regularity of menstrual cycles, early conception and progression of pregnancy. Besides, macaques are suitable models to study the regulation of multiple follicular development, following gonadotrophin ovarian stimulation and for generating supernumerary oocytes-embryos. In macaques, non-invasive ultrasonography could be performed to monitor follicular developmental dynamics and to time hCG-induced follicular maturation-ovulation. Also, non-surgical recovery of uterine-stage embryos could be performed for early developmental studies. Despite these fine experimental advantages, the successful timed-breeding of individually housed females in captivity, particular in colony-reared environment, unlike the ones in group housing, could pose a great deal of challenge in view of the need for understanding a few critical parameters such as right choice of fertile animals, timing of peri-ovulatory periods of mating-receptive females, selection of suitable stud males and an understanding of their mating behavior.

The first lecture will describe the fundamentals on the reproductive physiology and early development in macaque species and strategies of breeding in captivity. This will be followed by a second lecture which will deal with aspects related to ovarian folliculogenesis, ovulation and early embryo development in macaques. Studies related to the above will not only provide valuable information in our understanding of early development of non-human primates but also have implications in the clinical management of human infertility and are important in developing potential protocols for conservation of endangered primates.

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Genetic Population Managment

Gaby Doxiadis, Biomedical Primate Research Centre (BPRC), Rijswijk, The Netherlands

MHC typing as a useful method for genetic population management in outbred macaque colonies and
Microsatellite typing for parentage testing
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) typing for determination of the origin of the monkeys

The Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) class I and class II gene products play a essential role in adaptive immune defense in humans as well as non-human primates. The hallmark of the MHC is its extensive degree of polymorphism. Therefore, typing of MHC antigenes is a useful method for the characterization of the genetic background of a colony. The BPRC houses an outbred breeding colony of rhesus macaques of more than 5 generations. These monkeys have all been serologically typed for their MHC-A, -B (class I ) and -DR (class II) antigenes, and pedigrees have been determined.

Topic 1a: Introduction in the MHC
The genes encoding for the MHC antigenes belong to multigene families which are known for their polymorphism and diversity. Nowadays, molecular methods are used for high resolution typing of these genes which is most thoroughly performed by sequencing. Additionally, methods have been developed for a quick pre-screening of allelic variations of certain MHC genes.
Topic 1b): The MHC complex: multigene families, polymorphism, diversity
Topic 1c): Introduction in molecular methods: sequencing, Denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis (DGGE), microsatellite typing.
DGGE is a method frequently used to determine allelic variation of polymorphic genes in a quick and reproducible manner. For -DRB, the most polymorphic MHC class II loci of rhesus macaques, the DGGE method has been a helpful tool.
Microsatellites, short nucleotide repeats of 2 to 6 bp which are abondantly present in genomes of nearly organisms, are not only highly variable in number of repeats but are also inherited in a Mendalian fashion. Therefore, they are also useful tools for parentage determination.

Topic 2: Microsatellite typing for parentage testing
The rhesus macaques of the BPRC’s breeding colony originate mainly from India but there are also monkeys from Burma and China which are not easily distighuishable. Therefore, sequencing of the part of the mtDNA coding for the 12rRNA is performed.

Topic 3: mtDNA typing

For some topics, examples will be presented and questions are welcome