Laboratory Primate Newsletter
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LABORATORY PRIMATE NEWSLETTER Vol. 48, No. 3 July 2009 JUDITH E. SCHRIER, EDITOR JAMES S. HARPER, GORDON J. HANKINSON AND LARRY HULSEBOS, ASSOCIATE EDITORS MORRIS L. POVAR AND JASON MACHAN, CONSULTING EDITORS ELVA MATHIESEN, ASSISTANT EDITOR ALLAN M. SCHRIER, FOUNDING EDITOR, 1962-1987 Published Quarterly by the Schrier Research Laboratory Psychology Department, Brown University Providence, Rhode Island ISSN 0023-6861 POLICY STATEMENT The Laboratory Primate Newsletter provides a central source of information about nonhuman primates and related matters to scientists who use these animals in their research and those whose work supports such research. The Newsletter (1) provides information on care and breeding of nonhuman primates for laboratory research, (2) disseminates general information and news about the world of primate research (such as announcements of meetings, research projects, sources of information, nomenclature changes), (3) helps meet the special research needs of individual investigators by publishing requests for research material or for information related to specific research problems, and (4) serves the cause of conservation of nonhuman primates by publishing information on that topic. As a rule, research articles or summaries accepted for the Newsletter have some practical implications or provide general information likely to be of interest to investigators in a variety of areas of primate research. However, special consideration will be given to articles containing data on primates not conveniently publishable elsewhere. General descriptions of current research projects on primates will also be welcome. The Newsletter appears quarterly and is intended primarily for persons doing research with nonhuman primates. Back issues may be purchased for $10.00 each. We are no longer printing paper issues, except those we will send to subscribers who have paid in advance. We will not accept future subscriptions, unless subscribers are willing to pay $100/year. (Please make checks payable to the Brown University Psychology Department.) Readers with access to electronic mail may receive a notice when a new issue is put on the Website by sending the message subscribe LPN-WARN your-own-name to [email protected]. (Send the message subscribe LPN-PDF to receive PDF files by e-mail; or the message subscribe LPN-L to receive the nongraphic contents of each issue.) Current and back issues of the Newsletter are available on the World Wide Web at <http://www.brown.edu/primate>. Persons who have absolutely no access to the Web, or to the electronic mailing, may ask to have paper copies sent to them. The publication lag is typically no longer than the three months between issues and can be as short as a few weeks. The deadline for inclusion of a note or article in any given issue of the Newsletter has in practice been somewhat flexible, but is technically the tenth of December, March, June, or September, depending on which issue is scheduled to appear next. Reprints will not be supplied under any circumstances, but authors may reproduce their own articles in any quantity. PREPARATION OF ARTICLES FOR THE NEWSLETTER. – Articles, notes, and announcements may be submitted by mail, e-mail, or computer disk, but a printed copy of manuscripts of any length or complexity should also be sent by regular mail.. Articles in the References section should be referred to in the text by author(s) and date of publication, e.g., Smith (1960) or (Smith & Jones, 1962). Names of journals should be spelled out completely in the References section. Latin names of primates should be indicated at least once in each note and article. In general, to avoid inconsistencies within the Newsletter, the Latin names used will be those in Mammal Species of The World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, 2nd Ed. D. E. Wilson & D. M. Reeder (Eds.). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993. For an introduction to and review of primate nomenclature see The Pictorial Guide to the Living Primates, by N. Rowe, Pogonias Press, 1996. All correspondence concerning the Newsletter should be addressed to: Judith E. Schrier, Psychology Department, Box 1853, Brown University Providence, Rhode Island 02912 [401-863-2511; FAX: 401-863-1300] e-mail address: [email protected] Current and back issues of the Newsletter are available on the World Wide Web at http://brown.edu/primate ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Newsletter is supported by Brown University. Cover photograph of ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta), taken at the San Diego Zoo by Paul Wilde, 1997 Copyright © 2009 by Brown University The Effects of Exposure to an Expanded Environmental Enrichment Program on Select Individual Behaviors in Baboons Amy K. Goodwin, Susan A. James, Kelly E. Lane, Michael C. McDermott, Rebecca L. Rodgerson, and Nancy A. Ator Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Division of Behavioral Biology In our laboratory, we had often discussed our desire to fresh fruits or vegetables daily, and children’s chewable create an area in which our singly housed, adult male ba- multivitamins. Daily feeding occurred in late morning boons could be released to exercise. The opportunity to (never prior to time spent in the enrichment room). The do so arose when an environmental enrichment grant enrichment program already established in the colony, from the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing at which included human interaction, access to three or Johns Hopkins University provided funding for such a more toys (forage boxes, puzzle feeders, mirrors, Kong® project. Thus, the goals of the present study were to cre- toys, wood logs), and music continued without change ate an area large enough for baboons to safely engage in during the present study. species-specific behavior (i.e., free movement, explora- The overhead lights in the housing room were on for tory behavior, foraging) and to learn whether exposure to 13 h/day (6:00-19:00 h) and off for the remaining 11 this environment would be correlated with changes in h/day. Natural light also illuminated the room. target behaviors considered indicators of psychological well-being. Routine physical examinations (under ketamine hy- Methods drochloride anesthesia) occurred every two weeks or ap- proximately once per month, depending on the study in Subjects: Six adult male baboons (Papio anubis; Primate which each subject was serving. Imports, New York, NY, or Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, San Antonio, TX) served as sub- All protocols were approved by the Johns Hopkins jects in the present study. The six baboons (BB, DC, SY, University Animal Care and Use Committee. Animal CY, DE and SC) had been in the laboratory for at least care and use and facility maintenance followed the Guide three years and had been subjects in behavioral pharma- for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (1996) and cology studies. During the present study, the behavioral the U. S. Animal Welfare Regulations. Johns Hopkins pharmacology studies in which they participated included University is accredited by the Association for Assess- acute exposure to psychoactive compounds. Subjects ment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care Inter- were individually housed in stainless steel primate cages national. equipped with a bench running along one cage wall. The Room Construction: It was vital that the time and effort home cages, which provided 10 square feet of floor space required to create the enrichment room space be manage- (46.5 cubic feet total space), also served as the experi- able and that the expense stay below the $6000 received mental chambers, so the behavioral pharmacology ex- for the project from the Animal Welfare Enhancement periments took place in the home cage. Such experiments Award. Ultimately, by using resources already available typically involve the use of one or more levers, stimulus to us, we were able to manage the time and effort required lights, tones, and food pellet delivery. The baboons had without affecting the normal daily functioning in the labo- visual and auditory access to other baboons. ratory. The baboons had continuous access to tap water from The space designated for the enrichment room had a spout at the front of their cages and received a daily been constructed as an animal housing room (i.e., wall ration of Lab Diet (®PMI Nutrition International) or Pri- and floor surfaces met Guide standards; air was vented mate diet (®Harlan Teklad) biscuits, one or two pieces of externally), and all environmental aspects (e.g., tempera- ture and humidity) were controllable by laboratory per- Amy K. Goodwin, Johns Hopkins Univ. Sch. of Med., Behav- sonnel. The space was not needed for housing animals ioral Biology Research Center, 5510 Nathan Shock Dr., Suite when the project began. The room has 145.8 square feet 3000, Baltimore, MD 21224 [410-550-2781; fax: 410-550-2780; of floor space (663.5 cubic feet of total space), a fully e-mail: [email protected]]. functional sink, and a steel railing on three walls. The establishment of the enrichment room was made possi- ble through an Animal Welfare Enhancement Award made by A door had to be constructed such that baboons would the Johns Hopkins University Center for Alternatives to Animal be able to be safely transferred in and out of the room Testing. The authors would also like to thank Dan Rodgerson using the shuttle system described below. In order to for the technical expertise he lent to the project, and Robert J. accomplish this without permanently altering the room, a Adams, DVM, for helpful comments during the protocol review door measuring 83.25” by 47.25” was made of aluminum process and manuscript preparation. 1 sheets in a frame of 3” x 1.25” 6061 architectural alumi- (Sidman, 1960). A subject’s target behavior was meas- num, and installed in the existing door frame in front of ured before the intervention (i.e., exposure to enrichment the existing door (see Figure 1).