INNOVATIVE NURSERY-REARING FOR IMPROVING RHESUS MACAQUES AS BIOMEDICAL MODELS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. A major goal of the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) is to maintain successful breeding programs at NCRR-funded primate centers for specific-pathogen-free (SPF) macaque monkeys that are free of common retroviruses that can interfere with AIDS experiments and other types of research. SPF colonies are currently established by raising infants without their non-SPF mothers. Therefore, key to the long-term success of establishing and maintaining these SPF colonies is to develop efficacious strategies for raising infant monkeys in ways which minimize the emergence of behavioral pathologies due to social deprivation of their mothers and which will lead to the development of social competence. The proposed study will lead to the development of an interactive surrogate-peer rearing design that will provide both an attachment figure to the infant as well as response-contingency relationships with the attachment figure (surrogate) and peers. Providing these features during early development should result in nursery-reared infants with more normal social, motor, perceptual and cognitive skills than nursery-reared infants without these features.