Recent amendments to the Animal Welfare Act call for provision of physical environments promoting the psychological well-being of non-human primates. Criteria for evaluating the success of changes intended to promote psychological well-being are not defined. No means for implementing such changes are specified. This lack of definition and specificity is especially problematic for research facilities where use of infectious agents requires contained housing, or where experimental protocols do not allow animals to roam freely. In studying the psychological well-being of non-human primates, an array of enrichment strategies may be examined. From this array, it may be possible to select and develop systems that will provide social enrichment for a particular species. This Small Business Innovation Research project is to determine the feasibility of a program in which systems for primate environmental enrichment can be developed. The feasibility study will result in a plan to assess the value of objective behavioral criteria for developing enrichment procedures of three basic kinds: food, alternative caging, and implements of diversion or entertainment. The Phase I effort will be to specifically review strategic approaches, create objective behavioral protocols, postulate necessary constraints due to a particular animal or study, followed by a feasibility statement and recommended approaches. This research has potential for commercial application through patents on new caging design, playthings, stimulus enhancers and foods. A secondary application is that methods of environmental enrichment would help in the defense of the use of primates for research in the face of mounting pressures from animal-rights activists.
