The long-term plan of the Primate Research Institute of New Mexico State University is to replace all of its aging physical plant and animal caging systems on an adjacent site in order to continue its research programs in compliance with the NIH Guide and most stringent USDA present and future regulations. Planning requires attention to anticipated larger cage size specifications, requirements for exercise for primates, and environmental enrichment to promote the psychological well-being of primates. The research of PRI is primarily AIDS vaccine development in chimpanzees (contracted with NCI), AIDS and therapeutics development in macaques (contracted with US Army), breeding chimpanzees for health research (two Federal contracts, and extensive primate toxicology studies of xenobiotics (mainly biotech pharmaceuticals) for IND applications to the FDA. The toxicology is especially important in the development of new pharmaceuticals for treatment of viral diseases including AIDS, chemotherapy and diagnostics for cancer, immune modulators, TPA, bioengineered hormones, and growth factors for wound treatment.
Specific aims are: Comply with NIH and USDA standards for chimpanzee cages. Improve quality of macaque individual caging while permitting effective husbandry, enrichment, and flexibility. Enrichment of individually housed macaques. Plan for possible further increase in cage size, enrichment, and exercise requirements by the use of external enrichment devices and social contact via adjacent caging. Utilize social caging concepts to permit research and enrichment.
These aims will be attained by: Using social housing as much as possible and treating individual caging as temporary to meet specific and limited goals. Purchasing Group 6 cages for adult chimpanzees to replace cages that do not meet the size requirement. Purchasing racks for currently wall-mounted Group 3 macaque cages to improve husbandry and socialization. Purchasing macaque puzzle feeders, designing a chimpanzee model for such, and evaluating other enrichment devices.
