State-of-the-art housing to expand the Emory National Primate Research Center SPF rhesus macaque breeding colony

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Abstract The robust nonhuman primate research portfolio at the Emory National Primate Research Center (ENPRC), which reached $36.8M in FY2022, has placed significant and unsustainable demands on the Emory NPRC rhesus macaque SPF breeding colony. To meet the current and projected future research demand, ENPRC is proposing to build new animal housing at the ENPRC Field Station to facilitate expansion of the SPF breeding colony. The new animal housing proposed will be a novel housing design that integrates traditional large indoor/ outdoor breeding spaces into a building that includes smaller run housing space as well as animal support space. The run housing will be comprised of traditional indoor run space with accompanying enlarged outdoor run space to facilitate larger social groupings. This combination of compound and run space will maximize breeding potential and facilitate targeted genetic breeding in run groups to support specific research requests and enable colony management needs. The new building will enhance animal welfare with natural substrate in the runs as well as the outdoor compound and include functional features incorporated into the design that will improve animal handling and increase efficiency for personnel. The proposed new animal housing at the Field Station will allow for significant expansion of the SPF rhesus macaque colony over the next five years, thus providing additional animals to support the current research and projected research program for investigators at Emory NPRC as well as for external collaborators to address the nationwide shortage of NHPs for research.