Significance The prevention of tuberculosis in colonies on nonhuman primates is essential tothe maintenance of the integrity of primates used in biomedical research. Such prevention efforts rely heavily on the use of the tuberculin skin test (TST) for screening and surveillance. The periodic unavailability of Mammalian Old Tuberculin (MOT) has increased the urgency for developing alternative strategies for TB testing in nonhuman primates. Objective To evaluate a variety of alternative TB screening and diagnostic approaches to complement or replace the TST for use in nonhuman primates. Aternative strategies being evaluated include moloecular biology approaches including direct and indirect detection of TB by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and in vitro cellular assays. Results Blood and tissue samples have been collected from TST reactors and TB culture positive macaques for use in development and validation of these alternative diagnostic and screening assays. The preliminary results, particularly correlation with TST status, are currently being compiled for analysis. Future Directions Biological samples will continue to be collected from TST positive macaques as they are identified. Additional experimental studies involving immunization of macaques with Complete Freunds Adjuvant and BCG will be performed to provide additional reagent samples for test evaluation. KEYWORDS tuberculosis
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