Effects of housing conditions on behaviors and biochemical parameters in juvenile cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis).

To investigate the effects of environmental enrichment on laboratory monkeys, we studied behavioral and physiological differences following changes in housing conditions. Ten male and female juvenile cynomolgus monkeys were first housed in pairs for 8 weeks after quarantine/acclimatization (singly housed) and subsequently housed alone for the next 8 weeks. Monkeys were subjected to evaluations of body weight gain, stereotypic or affiliative behaviors, cortisol, 4-ethylphenyl sulfate (4EPS) and catecholamine concentrations in biological samples, and blood chemistry tests under both housing conditions.

Effect of new training technique on affinity of cynomolgus monkeys for animal care personnel.

To confirm our hypothesis that the sex and age of cynomolgus monkeys influences the effect of training, we employed a new training technique designed to increase the animal's affinity for animal care personnel. During 151 days of training, monkeys aged 2 to 10 years accepted each 3 raisins/3 times/day, and communicated with animal care personnel (5 times/day). Behavior was scored using integers between -1 and 5.