Viral Diseases of Nonhuman Primates

Wachtman, Lynn; Mansfield, Keith

Viral infections pose a potential threat to the health of laboratory and zoological colonies of nonhuman primates as well as the personnel involved in their care. This chapter discusses those viral diseases of importance to nonhuman primates and their caregivers by taxonomic family to which the causative agent is classified. A doctrine of comparative virology is that infection of the immunocompetent, appropriate host often is associated with minimal disease, whereas infection of the inadvertent susceptible host can have devastating consequences. The likelihood of such transmission is increased when changes in the environment place different species in close proximity. Similarly, transmission of viral agents from nonprimate host to primate host may result in severe disease. Perhaps of equal importance is the realization that experimental manipulations may inadvertently expose animals to unrecognized pathogens with lethal consequences. For instance, a number of minimally pathogenic viruses may cause severe disease in animals immunosuppressed from pharmacologic manipulation or immunodeficient from concurrent infection with viruses that target the immune system. Numerous examples of each of these scenarios are documented within this chapter.