Establishment of Specific Pathogen-Free Rhesus Macaque Colonies

描述(由申请人提供)： 预计对印度恒河猴进行艾滋病相关研究的需求继续超过可获得的数量。考虑到对非人类灵长类动物用于生物恐怖主义和新出现的疾病研究的兴趣，这种短缺可能会在未来几年持续下去。虽然来源国是潜在的未开发生产的重要储备，但在国际和国内运输非人类灵长类动物的难度越来越大，这表明依赖进口可能只会带来短期的缓解。扩大的国内育种计划成功地培育出了具有良好特征的动物，这些动物增强了它们在生物医学研究中的用途，为解决目前艾滋病疫苗和致病研究用印度猕猴短缺的问题提供了最佳的长期解决方案，并确保了未来的供应。这项申请的目的是继续扩大在第一次赠款期间启动的特定的无病原体印度恒河猴艾滋病研究群体资源的能力和改善遗传特征的水平。实现这一目标的具体目标是集中管理新的艾滋病研究群体，以最大限度地生产基因多样化的雌性，以扩大繁殖能力。选择性育种方法将被用来提高未来繁育者雄性的产量，这些雄性繁育者是科学上重要的等位基因的纯合。这些动物可以用来高效地产生大量携带所需等位基因的后代，而不需要诉诸近亲繁殖。目前群体中的遗传特征水平将扩大到包括MHC II类基因座。建议购买更多有保护的野外笼屋，以支持在保护这些宝贵动物免受环境中感染性病原体感染的环境中扩大种群。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The projected need for Indian rhesus macaques for AIDS-related research continues to exceed availability. Given the interest in nonhuman primates for bioterrorism and emerging disease research, this shortage will likely continue for years to come. While source countries are a potentially important reserve of untapped production the increasing difficulty of transporting nonhuman primate both internationally and domestically suggests relying on imports may provide only short term relief. Expanded domestic breeding programs managed to produce well characterized animals that enhance their use in biomedical research offer the best long-term solution for the current shortage of Indian-origin rhesus macaques for AIDS vaccine and pathogenesis studies and to insure future availability. The objective of this application is to continue expanding the capacity and improving on the level of genetic characterization of the specific pathogen-free Indian rhesus AIDS Research Colony resource initiated during the first grant period. The specific aim for accomplishing this objective is to intensively managing the new AIDS Research colony for maximum production of genetically diverse females to expand the breeding capacity. Selective breeding methods will be used to enhance production of future breeder males that are homozygous for scientifically important alleles. These animals can be used to efficiently produce large numbers of offspring carrying the desired allele without resorting to inbreeding The current level of genetic characterization in the colony will be expanded to include MHC class II loci. The acquisition of additional sheltered field cage housing is proposed to support colony expansion in an environment that protects these valuable animals from infectious agents in the environment.