The Specific Pathogen Free Baboon Research Resource (SPFBRR) is a scientifically unique colony of Old World research primates that are free of 19 adventitious infectious agents that are commonly found in conventional baboon species. The applied research that is proposed in this grant application has been developed to strengthen and improve the resource. The first two specific aims include the development and implementation of 7 molecular diagnostic assays for retroviruses and herpesviruses that are already on the bioexclusion list, and a novel arterivirus that has recently been identified in research baboons. Application of these assays will allow us to identify incipient infections in nursery-raised animals sooner, thus decreasing the attrition rate from the nursery. The next two projects involve genomic sequencing efforts to further define the animals within the SPFBRR and to improve the quality of research studies. The first of these genetics projects is to sequence the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I mRNA transcripts of all of the breeding animals in the SPFBRR to identify the complete repertoire of MHC class I genes. This information will allow us to perform MHC class I genotypes on all progeny animal in the colony to better inform future research studies. The second genetics project will be to perform whole genome sequencing (WGS) on 26 animals from the SPFBRR: the genomes of all 13 male breeders and one offspring from each of them will be sequenced. This information will allow us to calculate a 7 to 8 generation genomic pedigree analysis to better manage future colony breeding genetics, and it will also allow us to search for functionally significant genetic variations that could help to direct and inform future research projects. The final applied research project is a pilot study to use female retired breeder beagles as surrogates for nursery-raised baboons. The goal of this project is to provide some additional ?maternal? contact to ensure behaviorally normal adult baboons for the SPF breeding colony.
