Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
that herpes virus was present, managers of the park, acting on recommen-
dations of the Health and Safety Executive and the zoo licensing author-
ity authorized the shooting of an entire colony of more than 200 monkeys.
Similarly, in August, 2008 a colony of Tonkean macaques (
M. tonkeana
) at
the Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg, France was culled out of con-
cern that laboratory workers would be infected with herpes B (Abbott,
2008
;
CDR,
2000
).
Clearly, more research is needed to understand the natural epizootiology
of B virus in non-laboratory macaques and to compare the B virus strains
that have caused significant mortality and morbidity in laboratory work-
ers with the strains that circulate naturally in free-ranging populations of
macaques.
Simian Retroviruses
Simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)
Though simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) has gained renown as the
hypothesized progenitor of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), it is not
known to naturally infect macaques. (Hahn
et al
.,
2000
; Wolfe
et al
.,
1998
).
During the early years of the HIV epidemic
M. fascicularis
was proposed as
a model for studying the immune response to HIV infection (Gardner
et al
.,
1988
). However,
M. fascicularis
turned out not to be an appropriate animal
model for HIV, as inoculated animals failed to produce viremia or a neutraliz-
ing antibody response (Li
et al
.,
1995
; Reimann
et al
.,
2005
).
SIV has not been shown to naturally infect Asian macaques (Hayami
et al
.,
1994
; Jones-Engel
et al
.,
2006c
; Jones-Engel
et al
., 2006a). Experimental
infection of long-tailed macaques with SIV derived from African monkeys has
been demonstrated. In a study of thirty-three
M. fascicularis
experimentally
inoculated with SIVsm (SIV from sooty mangabeys), 29 of the long-tailed
macaques died after infection with SIV. Infection in these animals caused
splenic and lymph node enlargement, chronic diarrhea, weight loss and a very
high incidence of malignant lymphomas (Putkonen
et al
.,
1992
). Secondary
infection has been observed in experimentally infected pig-tailed macaques
(Kuller
et al
.,
1992
; Morton
et al
.,
1989
). Laboratory studies indicate that SIV
is highly pathogenic in Asian macaques.
SIV is of potential concern in situations such as zoos, exotic animal trade
and wet markets where African primates may come into contact with Asian
primates including long-tailed macaques. It is possible that SIV could be
introduced into free-ranging, long-tailed macaque populations with unknown
