What do phone books, ultrasound, puzzles, dental care, and table syrup all have in common? They are all elements of environmental enrichment and other activities of our Animal Services Unit, a vital component of the Primate Center. Over the last few years, this unit has invested in some important changes, including adding staff and launching initiatives to improve the overall quality of animal care. 

The staff includes attending veterinarian and unit head Christine O'Rourke, D.V.M., A.C.L.A.M., Kirk Boehm, head of Colony Records, Denny Mohr, head of Surgery, Joan Scheffler, MT-ASCP, head of Clinical Pathology Services, Carol Emerson, D.V.M, M.S., A.C.L.A.M., Jan Ramer, D.V.M., Julie Vanderloop, veterinary technician, Jennifer Quass, D.V.M., animal care supervisor, and 16 animal caretakers. Our investment in full staffing assures overall care, promotes environmental enrichment for the animals, and is enabling us to assess and improve animal housing as needed. 

Veterinary Care 

Animal Services focuses on veterinary care. "With the addition of Jan and Carol, O'Rourke says,We've been able to enhance preventative medicine for all our animals." 

For example, the staff has improved and expanded dental care. Vanderloop has taken on the majority of dental care duties for the monkeys, helping ensure that they have healthier, cleaner and stronger teeth. This is particularly important for some of the older monkeys, O'Rourke says, that tend to have more dental problems. Plus, routine dental care is now in place for the younger monkeys, helping prevent many problems, as well as catching potential problems early. 

The staff is also able to attend more rapidly to some of the medical cases in the colony. "We put more emphasis on health surveillance to assure that healthy animals are available for research projects," Boehm says. 

For instance, Emerson is taking UW courses in ultra-sound technology. Steve Eisele, a 39-year Primate Center veteran, and Tammie Frost already apply this technology to our animals. "Having additional trained staff in ultrasound technology will facilitate the care of pregnant monkeys," says O'Rourke. 

Tuberculosis testing is another important component of animal care. The veterinary staff has updated the colony's TB testing over the past several years. Dur-ing these semi-annual screenings, staff can simultaneously provide complete physical examinations to all the rhesus and stumptails. According to O'Rourke, this has resulted in better diagnosis and treatment of subclinical conditions. 

The veterinarians are always seeking new ways to improve animal health. For example, this April, Susan Grigsby, a physical therapist from Indianapolis who is interested in working with animals, visited the center. "Some of our geriatric rhesus monkeys have arthritis," says Jan Ramer. "Susan gave us some wonderful ideas about how to make these animals more comfortable through physical therapy techniques and by increasing exercise opportunities." In addition to the veterinarians, the animal caretakers are an invaluable asset to overall animal care and management. "We recognized that the animal care staff is closer to those animals than any of the rest of us," Boehm says. "This enables the staff to provide more guidance on such key areas as environmental enrichment." "The group includes many excellent and experienced senior care staff, as well as dedicated n"w staff," O'Rourke says. 

Environmental Enrichment 

A chief goal of Animal Services is to provide the animals with an environment that meets their needs for stimulation. Although psychological well-being is a legal requirement, the staff has gone on a creative crusade to provide low-cost, inventive enrichment for the monkeys that has surpassed the Animal Welfare ActÕs requirements. 

"At monthly enrichment meetings" says senior animal caretaker and enrichment coordinator Russ Vertein, "everybody is genuinely interested and does a great job of brainstorming and assessing enrichment activities they can implement." For example, Vertein, a 33-year veteran at the facility, has acquired old fire hoses as a new toy for the macaques. "The hose can be cut up into six-to-eight inch pieces and put into cages where the monkeys can chew on them and throw them around," he says. Vertein is also planning to build a four-way tunnel of PVC piping which the marmosets can enter and exit in different places. Vertein takes an avid interest in enrichment activities for the monkeys. In addition to recycling fire hoses, he's perusing catalogs to find new toys. Current enrichment toys include different size Kongs, which are thick cone shaped toys, mirrors, nylon bones, rings and dental balls, all of which are rotated every two weeks. Over time, animals can still become "bored" with these, so he would like to add new items to the center's inventory. 

Toys aren't the only tool used; food is a common form of enrichment. Ice cubes containing peanuts, raisins, and sunflower seeds keep the monkeys entertained and intrigued. Food is also given in puzzles (plastic, three-compartmented pieces that mount on the front of the cage). These are commonly filled with popcorn, peanuts, sunflower seeds, and frozen bread, giving the animals different challenges. Foraging boards (stainless steel plates with plastic carpeting inside) are another tool used to stimulate activity. The boards, also mounted on the front of the cage, contain a sweet, thick pudding made with table syrup, with cereal, craisins, raisins, frozen bread, sunflower seeds, shelled peanuts and other treats added. 

Add to this repertoire radios and paper, and you have a full slate of activities to pique a monkey's interest. "Monkeys really like phone books," explains O'Rourke. "This is our own form of recycling." Phone books, paper, and paper cups are the monkeys' paper of choice. "They rip them apart and throw them around and have a very good time doing it," says Vertein. 

All of these are important, but both Boehm and O'Rourke agree that the best form of enrichment comes from another compatible animal. Senior animal caretaker Doug Cowley has been especially involved with pairing compatible animals, says O'Rourke. Animals are pair- or group-housed often to give them the best stimulation and entertainment. 

Animal Housing 

One of the biggest challenges facing animal services is housing. Current cage types include a squeeze-back apparatus that allows handlers to do procedures with the monkeys still in their cages. This has also helped eliminate the need for handlers to reach into the cages. The backs can be pulled forward to bring the monkeys to the front where they can be easily accessed. This allows some treatments to be administered without removing the monkey and reduces the need for human handling. 

Our new facility will alleviate several housing problems, says Boehm. Due for completion in the fall of 1999, the renovation will include only portable caging, which will make it easier to clean rooms, transport monkeys and move caging units. Also, an automatic, centralized cage-wash facility will be installed, eliminating the need for washing cages by hand. "This new caging will greatly improve the housing arrangements of the monkeys and reduce the physical work of the animal care staff," says Boehm. In addition to better caging, the facility will include a new area for the pathology department, a new clinical pathology lab, led by Joan Scheffler, and an expanded surgical suite with two operating rooms headed by James Thomson, Ph.D. 

Boehm has been playing a large role in planning the new building. He has been working with architects and center staff to determine their needs and how to meet them. He has been making many of the decisions for the project, including submitting a19-page letter of comments to the architect about everything from light bulbs to door hinges. 

Animal Services acts "as an enabler of science," says Boehm, and is a valued department at the Primate Center. The unit encompasses many areas and ensures that top-quality animal care is given. 

"Animal Services serves as a vital link between the monkeys and the researchers," adds Interim Director Joe Kemnitz, Ph.D. "The expertise and dedication of this unit contributes greatly to our success." 

WRPRC launches endometriosis study

Endometriosis causes painful abdominal inflammation and can impair reproductive function. The disease is six to nine times more common among women who have a mother, sister or daughter with the disease than it is among women without affected first-degree relatives. 

Endometriosis is thought to occur when cells from the uterine lining accidentally lodge in the abdominal cavity, e.g., instead of being shed from the body during menstruation. These "trapped" cells continue to proliferate as they would in the uterus under monthly estrogen stimulation. Then they hemorrhage, causing scarring, inflammation and pain. 

"The disease is common," says Interim Director Joseph Kemnitz, Ph.D., "but it remains difficult to diagnosis and treat." 

Scientists examining the records of nearly 900 female rhesus monkeys living at the center between 1980 and 1995 found that approximately one fifth of the monkeys showed evidence of endometriosis. Of these, 42 percent were related to another female with the disease, while 13 percent were related only to unaffected monkeys. Now, armed with the knowledge that the disease in monkeys closely follows the situation in humans, the researchers are using molecular genetic techniques to further study hereditary susceptibility. 

"We hope that our collaborative work with researchers at Oxford will eventually allow us to identify women with a genetic risk for developing endometriosis," Kemnitz says. "Additionally, these molecular genetic techniques will be used to study other hereditary diseases common in human and nonhuman primates." 

The study is being led by Stephen Kennedy, M.D., at Oxford. Other WRPRC researchers involved include David Watkins, Ph.D., Christopher Coe, Ph.D., Joan Scheffler, and Hideo Uno, M.D., Ph.D. 

Publication:
Hadfield R.M., P.L. Yudkin, C.L. Coe, J. Scheffler, H. Uno, D.H. Barlow, J.W. Kemnitz, and S.H. Kennedy. 1997. Risk factors for endometriosis in the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta): a case control study. Human Reproduction Update. Mar; 3(2): 109-115. 

Grants and awards

C. David Pauza, Ph.D., received a four-year, $2 million NIH grant to study novel vaccines against SIV in rhesus monkeys. The Virology and Immunology Core Laboratory staff will conduct these studies using new vaccine constructs and immuno-regulatory proteins produced in Pauza's laboratory. 

David Watkins, Ph.D., is one of five scientists to receive a 1998 Elizabeth Glaser Scientist award. He will receive $680,940 from the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation to study cellular immune responses in rhesus monkeys to SIV during pregnancy and infancy. Elizabeth Glaser died of AIDS in December 1994. The UW-Madison Psychology graduate and PAF founder learned in the 1980s that she and her two children were HIV-positive. She had contracted the virus from a tainted blood transfusion. 

Nellie Laughlin, Ph.D., is one of seven UW-Madison professionals to earn a 1998 Academic Staff Excellence Award. A Primate Center affiliate and associate scientist in psychology, Laughlin earns a Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Research for her contributions to the nation's efforts to better understand and prevent childhood lead exposure. Her studies with rhesus monkeys model childhood lead exposure. Lead exposure affects one in six American children before they reach age 6. 

Travels 

Hideo Uno, Ph.D., World Congress of Hair Research, Nov. 12-14, Seville, Spain, "Antiandrogens in androgenetic alopecia in the stumptailed macaque." 

Ei Terasawa, Ph.D., plenary lecture at International Symposium on the Comparative Biology of GnRH Neurons, a satellite symposium of the 13th International Congress of Comparative Endocrinology, Nov. 22-23, Tokyo, Japan. 

Jan Ramer, D.V.M., Assoc. for Primate Veterinarians annual workshop, Nov. 14-16, Santa Monica, CA, "Fatal lympho-proliferative disease in a colony of common marmosets." 

David Abbott, Ph.D., IVth Winter Workshop, Dec. 1-3, Paris. Spoke on the use of Callitrichid monkeys in research in the U.S. and the establishment and maintenance of a common marmoset colony for biomedical and behavioral research. 

Rick Weindruch, Ph.D., First Internatl. Summit on Vegetarianism, Nov. 28-30, Las Vegas, "Aging and caloric intake." 

Ned Kalin, Ph.D., American College of Neuropsychopharma-cology annual meeting, Dec. 8-12, Kamuela, Hawaii. "Evaluation of CRF receptor antagonists in animal models." 

Richard Atkinson, Ph.D., Novartis Corp., Basel, Switzerland, and Johnson & Johnson, Surrey, England, consulted on new obesity drugs; Ann. Mtg. of the Amer. Soc. for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, Orlando, Fla., spoke on obesity; American Diabetes Association CME Course in San Francisco, Ca., spoke on appetite suppressant drugs. (All in January.) 

Interim Director Joseph Kemnitz, Ph.D., visited NCRR and NIA administrators in Rockledge, Md., Feb. 5, to discuss resource development for research on aging. He also visited Glaxo Wellcome U.S. headquarters in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., to discuss initiatives in the field of energy regulation. 

Appointments

C. David Pauza, Ph.D., was named to the Scientific Advisory Board of AIDS ReSearch Alliance, Hollywood, Ca. The private, nonprofit corporation promotes the development of new therapies for HIV infection and associated diseases, operates as an advocacy group for people with AIDS, and maintains educational outreach programs. In other news, Pauza's appointment to the editorial board for the Journal of Virology has been renewed through 1999. 

New staff

Tom Connell, Library document delivery manager, Nov. 24. 
Hanna Segev, Ph.D., postdoctoral research associate, Dec. 1. 
Helen Horton, Ph.D., research associate, Dec. 9. 
Ann Marie Paprocki, B.S., assoc. research spec., Dec. 15. 
Thorsten Vogel, Ph.D., research associate, Jan. 1. 
Peter Evans, Ph.D., research associate, Jan. 1. 
Michael C. Wussow, B.S., assoc. research specialist, Feb. 1. 
Lan Ma, visiting scholar in Thomson lab, Jan. 1-June 31. 

Corrections

In the Fall/Winter 1997 issue of Centerline, which featured our Neurobiology research group, we misquoted Paul Kaufman, M.D., as saying that glaucoma is "the second most common cause of irreversible vision loss in the U.S., next to presbyopia..." In fact, Kaufman said that glaucoma is the second most common cause of irreversible vision loss in the U.S., and that presbyopia, the progressive loss of ability to focus due to aging, while optically correctable, is the most prevalent human occular affiliction overall. (For more information about Kaufman's research, please visit http://www.wisc.edu/kaufmanlab.) 

Journal reference correction (Fall/Winter issue): Hellekant, G., Danilova V., and Ninomiya, Y. 1997. Primate sense of taste: Behavioral and single chorda tympani and glossopharyngeal nerve fiber recordings in the rhesus monkey, Macaca mulatta. J. Neurophysiol. 77:978-993.