Establishing Specific Pathogen-Free (SPF) Nonhuman Primate Colonies

Nonhuman primates continue to make significant contributions to human health through their role in comparative biomedical research in vaccine development, toxicology, teratogenesis, reproduction, xenotransplantation, and infectious diseases along with their therapy (Schmidt 1972; Eichberg 1989; Dormont and others 1990; Kalter and Heberling 1995). With today's growing sophistication in research and technology there is a demand for a comparably high-quality animal model that was foreseen in 1972 (Neurauter and Goodwin 1972). In 1988, it became apparent there would be a significant future need for retrovirusand herpes B virus-free monkeys to enable investigators to fully develop a promising simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) monkey model (StahlHennig and others 1990). Several of the retroviruses that infect rhesus monkeys have the same biological characteristics as HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) (Lerche and others 1994). Simian retrovirus infection in rhesus monkeys is widespread and in an experimental setting produces many of the same diseases as HIV in humans. Simian retroviruses cause neoplasia, leukemias, neurological disease, and immunodeficiency syndrome in nonhuman primates (Lerche and others 1991; Daniel and others 1984, 1985; Letvin and others 1985; Lowenstine and others 1986; Murphey-Corb and others 1986; Chakrabarti and others 1987). Many of the domestic rhesus production colonies were naturally infected with simian retroviruses that would confound experimental data relevant to AIDS research. There was an obvious need to establish a sustainable resource of rhesus monkeys free of simian retroviruses (Lerche and others 1994). In concert with the mission of the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and as part of the AIDS animal model program, a new initiative was launched to assist the development of self-propagating specific-pathogen-free (SPF) breeding populations of rhesus monkeys. The driving force behind creating SPF rhesus monkey colonies was AIDS, which was