Systemic Pathology of Chimpanzees

Abstract

Spontaneous lesions in chimpanzees have been described according to the organ system involved. These lesions have been reported in the literature or noted in chimpanzees at the 6571st Aeromedicai Research Laboratory (ARL), Holloman AFB, N. Mex., over a 15-year period. Some of the lesions seen at the ARL were the result of overt clinical disease, while others represent incidental findings, the significance and genesis of which were often obscure. Conditions involving the gastrointestinal tract, especially parasitic diseases, have been and continue to be of the highest frequency, with disorders involving the cardiovascular system next. Infectious diseases have been infrequent, especially in the stabilized colony, and neoplastic conditions have not been seen.

Population Genetic and Phylogenetic Evidence for Positive Selection on Regulatory Mutations at the Factor VII Locus in HumansSequence data from this article have been deposited with the EMBL/GenBank Data Libraries under accession nos. AY493422, AY493423, AY493424, AY493425, AY493426, AY493427, AY493428, AY493429, AY493430, AY493431, AY493432, AY493433.

“…The level of divergence in the 5Ј region along the human branch, as well as the transcription factor binding sites along the human lineage. To determine whether three of the four fixed substitution rate among all of these primates, is well within the average rate measured among 45 large, nondifferences falling within binding sites is more than that expected by chance, we counted the total number of coding regions for this clade (Yi et al 2002). Three of the fixed differences in humans (positions Ϫ401, Ϫ220, nucleotides in this region that comprise transcription factor binding sites; our conservative estimate was 74 and Ϫ108) are located in experimentally verified transcription factor binding sites (Ϫ220 and Ϫ108; Pollak (experimentally defined: Ϫ108 to Ϫ84, Ϫ233 to Ϫ215, 10-bp indel; estimates: 10 bp for Ϫ402/Ϫ401 binding et al.…”

A Chimpanzee Genome Project Is a Biomedical Imperative: Figure B1.

“…Whereas these cancers cause >20% of deaths in modern human populations (Parker et al 1997), an extensive literature suggests that the cancer incidence rates for the nonhuman primates is only ∼2%-4% and seems to be even lower in the great apes (McClure 1973;Seibold and Wolf 1973;Schmidt 1978;Beniashvili 1989;Scott 1992). Although the numbers of welldocumented autopsies on great apes are relatively small (in the hundreds), several factors suggest that this apparent difference is not due to ascertainment bias.…”

The Pathoparasitology of Nonhuman Primates: A Review

“…These small nematodes are prevalent in most tropical and subtropical areas, but their occurrence in the temperate zones is sporadic. Several species have been reported to affect nonhuman primates: Strongyloides cebus has been found in New World monkeys (cebus monkeys, woolly monkeys, spider monkeys, squirrel monkeys, and marmosets) [207,290,437,461,492,541,634,650,752,791], Strongyloides fulleborni in Old World monkeys and great apes (rhesus monkeys, cynomolgus monkeys, guenons, baboons, and chimpanzees) [290, 345, and great apes (gibbons, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans) [38,171,177,222,285,290,360,504,570,650,672,687,774,791,857,861,922]. Only adult females and larvae are found in the gastrointestinal tract of the host animal.…”

“…Clinical signs usually are limited to anal pruritis and irritation that may lead to self-mutilation, restlessness, and increased aggressiveness [131,158,200,290,461,570,650,742,774,791]. Heavy pinworm infections are reported to be common in chimpanzees, and their coprophagic habits make constant reinfection inevitable [718].…”

“…Heavy pinworm infections are reported to be common in chimpanzees, and their coprophagic habits make constant reinfection inevitable [718]. Fatal cases of enterobiasis have been reported in chimpanzees [390,439,774,775,853], characterized by extensive ulcerative enterocolitis, peritonitis, and necrogranulomatous lymphadenitis involving the mesenteric lymphnodes. Numerous parasites with the morphologic characteristics of Enterobius vermicularis were associated with these lesions.…”