Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
By 1975, more than 4000 rhesus monkeys were
committed to breeding at 14 major sites in the USA
(
Southwick, 1975
). Additional breeding stocks, including
other species of macaques, baboons, patas monkeys,
chimpanzees, squirrel monkeys, and callitrichids, in
decreasing order, brought the total number of nonhuman
primate breeders in 1975 to about 5800. Some 5000 rhesus
monkeys were produced each year from domestic breeding
programs by 1984 (
Johnsen and Whitehair, 1986
). The same
report shows that at least 25 other species were also being
bred in significant numbers, bringing the total to about 8000
nonhuman primates being produced annually in the USA.
projects in several countries of Latin America and Asia.
One helped to establish the Primate Reproduction and
Conservation Station in Iquitos, Peru, in cooperation with
the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the
Peruvian government. The station included facilities for
captive breeding as well as a field component for trapping
and monitoring. This was probably the first serious effort in
sustained yield cropping of forest populations of nonhuman
primates. It has continued to be a source of squirrel
monkeys, callitrichids, and owl monkeys for biomedical
research for many years.
One of the most important accomplishments of the
IPSC was to develop a National Primate Plan (
Held, 1978
).
Another was to lay the groundwork, through a series of
sponsored meetings and reports, for the National Chim-
panzee Management Plan (NCMP).
Interagency Primate Steering Committee
The United States Assistant Secretary for Health estab-
lished the Interagency Primate Steering Committee (IPSC)
in 1975 to provide a coordination and operational point
between concerned federal agencies to assure that critical
US research and testing needs for nonhuman primates were
met (
Anonymous, 1975
). The IPSC was located within the
NIH and was chaired by Joe Held, a veterinarian who
directed the DRS and led the government's effort to
develop a plan for meeting the nation's nonhuman primate
research needs (
Figure 1.9
). Benjamin Blood, a veterinary
public health specialist with an extensive background in
international health, was recruited as the IPSC executive
director. The IPSC quickly moved to promote a number of
Other Conservation Activities
The proceedings of a major international conference on
nonhuman primate conservation in 1985 indicated that the
research community was taking nonhuman primate
conservation and breeding seriously (
Benirschke, 1986
). At
least half of the papers presented were from field and
laboratory investigators
and activities
supported by
biomedical and health research sponsors.
The Washington NPRC supported original studies and
surveys of nonhuman primate populations in Indonesia and
operated a field station on the east coast of Kalimantan as
well (
Smith, 1975
). The center built long-lasting relation-
ships with collaborators there that later provided the
foundations for establishing SPF production colonies and
the Indonesian Primate Center in Bogor.
Wisconsin NPRC staff member Stephen Gartlan con-
ducted nonhuman primate field studies in Cameroon for
many years and worked to establish national wildlife
reserves in that country. The Animal Resources Program in
the NIH's DRR also provided grant support for many years
to field investigators such as Charles Southwick. South-
wick's longitudinal studies of Indian macaques helped to
document the case for improved conservation practices and
captive breeding abroad (
Southwick and Lindburg, 1986
).
Approaches to improved conservation also found
application closer to home. The Washington NPRC, with
NIH contract support, launched the Primate Information
Clearinghouse, with its “Clearinghouse Bulletin,” in 1977.
Its purpose, later emulated by the European Primate
Network, was to assist in the recycling of nonhuman
primates and tissues between institutions.
FIGURE 1.9
Four of a kind, all veterinarians in the field of
nonhuman primate medicine, taken in Bethesda in 1987. Left to right:
Bob Whitney, head of the NIH's Division of Research Services (DRS) and
later acting US Surgeon General; Joe Held, former head of DRS; Dennis
Johnsen, director of the NIH's NPRC program; and Ron Hunt, director of
the New England NPRC. Whitney and Held led government efforts to
establish and implement a national primate plan, Johnsen helped to launch
NIH's Chimpanzee Breeding and Research Program, and Hunt was
a respected researcher, director of the the New England NPRC, and
member of the team that first identified SIV. (Photo courtesy of Jim
Dougherty and the NIH.)
Non-Governmental Organizations
A number of organizations and activities in the private
sector played a role in the development of medical prima-
tology. Several predated the 1970s, and they did much to
