A 75‐year pictorial history of the Cayo Santiago rhesus monkey colony

Abstract

This article presents a pictorial history of the free-ranging colony of rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico, in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of its establishment by Clarence R. Carpenter in December 1938. It is based on a presentation made by the authors at the symposium, Cayo Santiago: 75 Years of Leadership in Translational Research, held at the 36th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Primatologists in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on 20 June 2013.

Drivers of Diversification in Individual Life Courses

“…All individuals are descendent of the 409 Indian-origin founders. Since then, the colony has been maintained under seminatural conditions for behavioral and noninvasive research (Kessler and Rawlins 2016). Monkeys forage on vegetation and are provisioned with commercial monkey chow.…”

Familial periodontal disease in the cayo santiago rhesus macaques

“…This cohort of animals was derived from a large, free-ranging colony of rhesus monkeys that was created in 1938 by seeding 400 Indian rhesus monkeys onto the isolated island of “Cayo Santiago” off the southeast coast of Puerto Rico. This colony currently houses approximately 900 animals from newborns to aged animals naturally organized into hierarchical groups with a specific hierarchical order within and between groups [Kessler and Berard, 1989; Whitehair, 1989]. Of particular importance to this investigation is that: (1) the existence of the colony for 75 years has enabled the creation of extensive pedigrees for all animals over 8 generations [Rothschild et al, 1999; Hernandez-Pacheco et al, 2013]; and (2) natural death of the animals in this predator-free environment has led to the creation of a collection of full skeletons from over 2000 animals from this colony with defined matriarchal lineage [Burr et al, 1989; Rothschild et al, 1999; Wang et al, 2006a; Wang et al, 2006b; Wang et al, 2007].…”

Social bufferingandcontact transmission: network connections have beneficial and detrimental effects onShigellainfection risk among captive rhesus macaques

“…Among humans on the other hand, reports of enteric bacterial prevalence are often inflated by sampling paradigms that focus purely on hospitalized patients, and/or individuals already showing signs of symptoms (e.g., Kotloff et al, 1999). We contend that pre-symptomatic, epidemiologically accurate assessments of enteric bacterial prevalence levels are imperative both for humans and captively housed animals given that these pathogens are (i) omnipresent, (ii) both socially and environmentally transmittable, and/or (iii) may cause unpredictable outbreaks of virulent infection both among humans and macaques (DuPont, 2000; Gupta et al, 2004; Kessler & Rawlins, 2016). Among the CNPRC macaques, a logical next step would be to establish associations between Shigella infection and symptomatic effects (e.g., diarrhea, enteritis) that may necessitate clinical treatment.…”

“…Although the dosage levels of Shigella flexneri that may generate virulent effects among primates is unclear, the occurrence of acute enteritis in rhesus macaques housed in captivity has been linked to infection from this pathogen (Lee, Kim & Park, 2011). There have also been two documented outbreaks of Shigellosis among semi-free ranging rhesus macaques at Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico, resulting in enteritis, abortions, and increased mortality rates among pregnant monkeys (Kessler & Rawlins, 2016). Such documentations of virulent infection among primates, further to its well-established social- and/or environmental-contact mediated transmission routes among humans, make Shigella an ideal pathogen for investigating the effects of social network connectedness on susceptibility versus resistance to infection risk.…”