Developing Housing Facilities for Rhesus Monkeys: Prevention of Abnormal Behaviour

Abstract

If one is to conduct research in which experimental animals are used, one must keep the animals available for the research to be conducted. The care given to the animals before, during and also after such research, is referred to as animal husbandry. Although this area has received a great deal of attention over the years, it is currently one of the areas in experimental animal science which experiences new developments. The issues raised are so fundamental that animal husbandry might indeed become a focal point of scientific interest. The central point in animal husbandry is the concern for or protection of the well-being of the animal. Well-being then is taken in a broad sense, i.e. psychological or behavioural well-being in addition to the presence of adequate food and drinking water and the absence of diseases. This point has also become a concern to the general public. In many countries legislation on the protection of laboratory animal welfare has been drafted or become effective. In the Netherlands the act on the protection of experimental animals welfare is a framework law in which specific guidelines are to be provided. The law rules that special attention be given to certain mammalian species which are often used as household pets and to primates. The drafting of rules on husbandry of experimental animals takes place under the guidance of a committee of experts working with experimental animals (Goosen et al., 1984). This paper describes how the drafting of such rules on the housing of rhesus monkeys has incited new research and what developments in the near future can be expected in the practice of husbandry.