Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Transportation
25
Living in the 3R (Replacement, Refinement, and Reduction)
World
Animal Extremism and its Effects
25
27
Chimpanzees
25
Looking Toward the Future
27
Demand for Specific Pathogen Free and Genetically
Defined Nonhuman Primates
General Trends
27
26
Pharmaceutical and Biotechnological Research
28
Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) NHPs
26
Conclusion
28
Advances in Genetics and Genomics
26
References
29
HUMAN AND NONHUMAN PRIMATES
TO 1960
Roots of Modern Primatology
Nonhuman primates probably first became valuable to
humans as pets, but they are also the oldest recorded animal
subjects for scientific research (
Hill, 1977
). Nonhuman
primate pet trading is known to have occurred in Egypt as
long as 5000 years ago (
Morris and Morris, 1966
); their use
for medical purposes came somewhat later, although still in
respectably ancient times. Galen (130
Mechnikov, a pioneer of modern Soviet experimental
primatology, to establish a primate breeding station in
1923. Located in Sukhumi on the subtropical shores of the
Black Sea in the then Soviet State of Georgia, the station
was intended to be a quarantine, breeding, and holding
center for nonhuman primates and to support a network of
50 medical and biomedical research institutions. It began
operations in 1927 when it received the first shipment of
hamadryas baboons (Papio hamadryas) and chimpanzees
(Pan troglodytes) from Africa. At first, captive breeding
was unsuccessful. However, there was improvement as
experience in maintaining and breeding nonhuman
primates was gained. Charting a course that has been
followed elsewhere, activities of the Sukhumi station's
service gradually expanded to encompass initiatives in
independent research. In 1957, now under the auspices of
the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, the
station became the Institute of Experimental Pathology
and Therapy (IEPT) in recognition of its status as a full-
fledged research institution. By 1990, the IEPT had
production colonies of over 7000 animals consisting
primarily of baboon and macaque species, a staff of about
1000 people, and research programs focusing on oncology,
physiology, biochemistry, infectious diseases, and the
biology of nonhuman primates (B. A. Lapin, personal
communication, 1990). The institute also served as
a principal source of nonhuman primates for the Virology
Institute in Moscow and the Russian space program. It was
also an international resource with productive research
links to medical scientists in the USA and elsewhere
(
Figure 1.1
).
The secession of Georgia from the former Soviet
Union and the disturbances associated with the declaration
of independence of Abkhazia seriously disrupted
continued operations in Sukhumi. These problems forced
completion in 1992 of a move of less than 100 miles to
a satellite site in Russia near the city of Adler (D. M.
Bowden, personal communication, 1993). Despite this
adversity, the institute, now the Institute of Medical
Primatology of the Russian Academy of Medical
Sciences, remains not only one of the largest nonhuman
primate research centers in the world but one of the most
enduring as well.
200
AD
) did anatom-
ical studies on animals including monkeys (
Cohen and Loew,
1984
) and Vesalius (1514
e
1564) used barbary apes (Macaca
sylvanus) in his studies of circulatory anatomy (
Morris and
Morris, 1966; Kavanaugh and Bennett 1984; Loeb et al.,
1989
).
Ruch (1941)
has also documented that monkeys and
apes were studied fromancient times through themiddle ages
by Hanno, Aristotle, Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger,
Petrus, Candidus, and others.
Darwin's research on evolution and particularly his notes
on the behavior of the gorilla established his credentials as
one of the first observational primatologists (
Darwin, 1871
).
Also late in the 19th century, the British physician David
Ferrier conducted comparative neuroanatomy studies of apes
and monkeys (
Morris and Morris, 1966
). During the same
time period, Pasteur discovered that the passage of the rabies
virus throughmonkeys caused it to lose its virulence for dogs
(
Pasteur et al., 1884a,b
). Some 20 years later, poliovirus was
isolated by inoculating spinal cord material collected from
fatal human cases intraperitoneally into monkeys (
Land-
steiner and Popper, 1908, 1909
). The primatological
knowledge that was generated came largely from relatively
few behavioral and biomedical investigators working
independently. With the institutionalization of nonhuman
primate research, a profound change became possible.
e
First Primate Centers
Soviet Institute of Experimental Pathology and
Therapy
According to
Held and Gay (1983)
and
Lapin (1983)
, the
first Commissar of Health in the USSR was persuaded by
