TNPRC Breeding Colony Expansion in Support of COVID-19 Research

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Tulane National Primate Research Center (TNPRC) is one of seven National Primate Research Centers (NPRCs) sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. The Center is dedicated to providing the infrastructure and support for basic and applied research efforts to advance scientific knowledge and improve human and animal health and wellbeing. The TNPRC has one of the largest specific pathogen free (SPF) rhesus monkey breeding colonies in the United States. Over the past five years this breeding colony produced between 200-900 infants a year and provided close to 2,000 animals for biomedical research programs. National need for these high-quality nonhuman primate models exceeds supply, and demand has increased in the face of the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The pandemic has placed tremendous pressure on established specific pathogen free (SPF) rhesus macaque breeding colonies and threatens the capacity to provide sufficient animals for research. The TNPRC P51 base grant award (P51 OD011104) provides funds to maintain a self-sustaining population of healthy, behaviorally normal, genetically diverse, and well-characterized nonhuman primates for a broad range of research projects. This supplement to the P51 base grant will be used to add a housing enclosure unit and provide financial support for additional breeding animals for population expansion. The proposed enclosure has been designed to maximize capacity and flexibility for the available funding and to provide novel and proven environmental enhancement components. Support for breeding animals will cover costs associated with husbandry and veterinary medical care, viral testing, genetic testing, behavioral management, the preventive health program, and additional personnel to provide care. The housing enclosure development and support for breeding animals objectives are both within the goal of the Breeding Colony Management Program component of the parent award, "to maintain and improve, where possible, the health and characterization of the colonies so that only high-quality animals are utilized contributing to high quality and reproducible experiments." The benefits realized from this improvement will expand the TNPRC SPF rhesus macaque research infrastructure to assure these colonies are sustainable and able to provide well characterized research models well into the future.