SARS‐CoV‐2 surveillance for a non‐human primate breeding research facility

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic brings new challenges to the management of non-human primate (NHP) colonies for breeding, research, conservation, or other settings. The increasing human prevalence of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and evolving understanding of its transmission, particularly from asymptomatic carriers, 1-3 requires that the risk of human-to-NHP, NHP-to-NHP, and potentially NHP-to-human transmission be mitigated (Figure 1). Non-human primates (including macaca, cercopithecus, and papio species) can be infected with SARS-CoV-2. 4-6 Conversely, experimental trials to infect marmosets (Callithrix spp.) have not shown any signs of active infection. 7 The potential for SARS-CoV-2 to cause clinical disease in NHPs has been variable under experimental conditions. 8,9 Studies to determine whether certain populations (age, co-morbidities) are at greater risk of infection and/or clinical disease are in progress. 10,11 Although early data indicate that macaques that are experimentally infected are immune to reinfection, 12 the durability

SARS-CoV-2 induces robust germinal center CD4 T follicular helper cell responses in rhesus macaques

“…The study received ethical approval by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at UC Davis and research personnel and animal staff complied with all relevant ethical regulations for animal testing and research. As described by the authors 48 , strict social distancing measures were implemented at the CNPRC at the start of the pandemic in March to reduce the risk of human-to-rhesus SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Animals were screened for SARS-CoV-2 and housed in barrier rooms with increased PPE requirements prior to study assignment.…”

SARS-CoV-2 Infection of Rhesus Macaques Treated Early with Human COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma

“…Binding antibodies in serum were detected using four individual enzyme immunoassays and a multiplex microbead immunoassay. Nucleocapsid His tag recombinant protein expressed in insect cells (Sino Biological, Wayne, PA), BetaCoV/Wuhan/IVDC‐HB‐05/2019 spike protein trimers (amino acids 1 to 1208; GIAID number EPI_ISL_402121) with 6×His tags at the C terminus (Immune Technology Corp., New York, NY), spike protein receptor binding domain His tag recombinant protein expressed in HEK cells (GenScript, Piscataway, NJ), and heat-inactivated viral lysate (isolate USA-WA1/2020 propagated in Vero E6 cells [BEI Resources, Manassas, VA]) were each individually validated by enzyme immunoassays and used for CNPRC colony surveillance before being used to test these study samples ( 43 ). The antigens were then combined with internal positive (IgG, anti-IgG) and negative (uninfected cell debris) controls as a multiplex microbead panel on the Luminex platform (Luminex Corp., Austin, TX).…”

SARS-CoV-2 infection induces robust germinal center CD4 T follicular helper cell responses in rhesus macaques

“…Eight colony-bred Indian origin rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) were housed at the California National Primate Research Center and maintained in accordance with American Association for Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care guidelines and Animal Welfare Act/Guide. As described by us 37 , strict social distancing measures were implemented at the CNPRC at the start of the pandemic in March to reduce risk of human-to-rhesus SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Animals were screened for SARS-CoV-2 and housed in barrier rooms with increased PPE requirements prior to study assignment.…”