The Primate Supply Information Clearinghouse - PSIC (to be renamed the Primate Resource Referral Service - PRRS in 2006) provides the communications/ database network needed for efficient acquisition and sharing of existing captive primates and primate-related resources by investigators and institutions both nationally and internationally. The overall goal of this service is to maximize the use of existing captive primates thereby reducing the total number of primates needed for research, and in turn, helping to promote the conservation of primate populations in the wild. Like the PSIC, the PRRS's services will continue to include: 1) Referral Service, an immediate, staff-operated service designed to match investigator inquiries/ requests to the available resource listings maintained in the PRRS's master database;2) CURRENT LISTINGS, a twice monthly newsletter listing current availability of, as well as needs for, primates (and most recently, tissues, equipment, and services);3) SUPPLY LISTINGS, a second newsletter, to be published monthly, will be established at the beginning of the project period designed to accommodate other primate-related resource listings (tissues, caging/ equipment, services) thus allowing CURRENT LISTINGS to focus completely on animal availability/requests;4) ANNUAL RESOURCE GUIDE (ARG), an annual publication that lists subscribing suppliers of primates, laboratories, equipment, and commercial services such as transportation and quarantine facilities;and 5) Website, an interactive, internet-based site that includes the full text of CURRENT LISTINGS (and eventually SUPPLY LISTINGS) and the online forms for posting resource availability, requests/wants updates or changes to listings, an online renewal form, the current ARG, a diagram of primate taxonomy with illustrative photographs, an online feedback form, general service information, and links to other sites of interest to the primate research community. An additional research component of the proposed project will be to assess ongoing primate requests and availability so as to help track and predict emerging trends in species use and demand. The PRRS will continue to serve the NCRR community, research laboratories and institutions, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, zoological parks, and breeding colonies. This service will provide the efficient sharing of captive primates and primate-related materials, resulting in significant cost savings to the research community and reducing the time and effort required by investigators to locate or place animals and tissues. The PSIC has provided an important referral service for the past 25 years and, as the PRRS, will continue to meet one of NCRR's 2004-2008 Strategic Plan objectives - to enhance access to nonhuman primate models through a database network that allows scientists to locate nonhuman primates with particular characteristics.
