What is it about?
Macaques are frequently used as animal models for biomedical research. Viral infections of macaques can threaten the health of these animals and that of personnel with macaque contact. Therefore, the availability of diagnostic tests is important. We used a commercial, chip-based system to study the presence of antibodies against viruses in a colony of captive macaques. We found that the animals frequently had antibodies against beta- and gammaherpesviruses and simian foamy virus which do not pose a health. In contrast, none of the animals had antibodies against macacine alphaherpesvirus 1 (herpes B virus) that can induce fatal encephalitis in humans.
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Why is it important?
The results suggest largely match expectations and suggest that the diagnostic test used is suitable to screen macaques for antibodies against viruses.
Perspectives
Results need to be compared against those obtained with other test systems.
Professor Stefan Pöhlmann
German Primate Center
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Seroprevalence of viral infections in captive rhesus and cynomolgus macaques, Primate Biology, March 2019, Copernicus GmbH,
DOI: 10.5194/pb-6-1-2019.
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