Research Benefits of Improving Welfare in Captive Primates

Abstract

The maintenance of high levels of welfare in captive nonhuman primates is essential to research. Behavioral management techniques, incorporating socialization strategies, environmental enrichment procedures, and positive reinforcement training techniques typically result in high levels of species-appropriate behaviors and low levels of abnormal behaviors. Additionally, these techniques can yield physiological and immunological response patterns indicative of the suitability of nonhuman primate subjects for use in biomedical and other types of research projects. Similarly, subject selection procedures that account for relevant characteristics of the nonhuman primates (disease status, species, temperament, etc.) are also likely to positively influence data quality. Behavioral management procedures and subject selection strategies typically result in fewer confounding influences on experimental data, resulting in less problematic interindividual variation in studies that employ appropriate behavioral management techniques. The implementation of behavioral management refinements results in enhanced welfare for the subjects, higher quality data, more reliable and robust results, and potentially, a reduction in the number of subjects required for research projects. Using positive reinforcement training techniques that allow socially housed, appropriately selected, nonhuman primates living in enriched environments to participate in research procedures is critical, if not imperative, to the collection of reliable and valid data, the foundation of all types of scientific investigations.