The NIH-funded Specific Pathogen Free Baboon Research Resource (SPFBRR) was developed in collaboration between the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) and Oklahoma State University (OSU). Now the future of this valuable colony is uncertain. There has been a recent decision to wind-down the baboon colony and end all nonhuman primate (NHP) research at OUHSC. An exhaustive effort has gone into finding a new home for this valuable colony and a suitable location has been identified. The Michale E. Keeling Center for Comparative Medicine and Research (Keeling Center) in Bastrop, TX is favorably positioned to obtain the indispensable SPFBRR and has all of the necessary infrastructure and support to ensure its future success. Therefore, the overall goals of this P40 application are to transfer ownership of the SPFBRR to the Keeling Center in order to preserve this valuable national research resource of SPF baboons. There, the Keeling Center will preserve and expand the breeding colony in order to form an active, self-supporting, behaviorally healthy, and genetically robust breeding colony of baboons; provide education and training to scientists, veterinarians, colony managers, and animal caregivers learning about baboons; continue research to improve the resource; and, support investigators who need facilities and expertise to conduct animal studies using SPF baboons. The SPFBRR is the only national research resource of laboratory born super-clean SPF baboons available to NIH grantees, intramural research programs of federal agencies including the FDA, NSF, and the NIH, and other sponsors of biomedical research (private foundations, pharmaceutical companies, and contract research organizations). Absolutely unique in the entire world, the baboons in the SPF breeding colony have an extensive bioexclusion list of 19 pathogens normally found in other wild and captive monkey colonies. But ridding the baboons of these common pathogens has been challenging. Even so, the SPFBRR has a current population of 125 baboons which includes 52 productive females. At the Keeling Center, the SPFBRR will continue to improve the resources it provides and continue to add new information about the biology and research value of baboon model. Baboons continue to be used extensively for xenotransplant, infectious disease, vaccine development, surgical models, and maternal fetal medicine. New areas of research requiring SPF baboons, such as Bordetella pertussis, Respiratory Syncytial Virus and most recently Zikavirus, continue to emerge. As these new research areas develop, the SPFBRR will be poised to play an essential role by providing the animals, biological resources, and the expertise needed to carry out research in baboons. In the proposed funding period, the SPFBRR will relocate to the Keeling Center where it will increase animals and related resources provided to the scientific community. The baboon MHC1 loci will be sequenced and blood types will be determined for all breeding animals. This information will further refine and add value to the resources provided by the SPFBRR.
