Rhesus Macaques

SNPRC is home to over 900 Indian-origin rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) and aims to fulfill a critical need by providing Indian-origin rhesus macaques monkeys for national AIDS-related research efforts using state-of-the-art viral testing methods. Other research with the animals includes SARS-CoV-2, Ebola, Marburg and Tuberculosis.

Our rhesus macaques are treated with the upmost respect. They are housed in indoor-outdoor enclosures and receive daily enrichment.

Our goals are to provide Indian-origin Specific Pathogen-Free (SPF) rhesus monkeys for biomedical research, to acquire and provide non-rhesus macaques to programs using other macaque species not bred at SNPRC and to manage the research projects that are conducted with macaques at SNPRC.

We also provide monkeys that are typed for MHC class I and genetically manage the colonies. More than 900 rhesus macaques have been successfully genotyped. We have developed a cost-effective plan for genetic management and characterization of nonhuman primate breeding colonies using high throughput sequencing methods. Our total genome sequence data maximizes diversity and retains important allelic variants.

We procure macaques of any species not available within the SNPRC for investigators who request them, and manage the experimental protocols to which animals of any macaque species are assigned.