Dettmer Amanda M, Slonecker Emily M, Clouse Sylvia, Ozturkoglu Yagmur, Meyer Jerrold S
Yale Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA.
Appl Anim Behav Sci. 2024 Nov;280. doi: 10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106428. Epub 2024 Oct 24.
While the behavioral and physiological impacts of nursery rearing in laboratory-housed infant monkeys have been well characterized, to date no studies have examined the impact on nonhuman primate dams of their infants being removed for rearing in the nursery. Despite the lack of evidence on the topic, anti-animal research groups often cite mother-infant separation and infant nursery rearing (NR) as a welfare concern for laboratory monkey mothers. As such, important policy decisions regarding research activities may result without adequate evidence. Therefore, we designed this study to examine behavioral and hormonal responses in laboratory monkey dams, who were part of independent long-term longitudinal studies, in response to their infants being NR or mother-peer-reared (MPR). We assessed social, self-care, environmental exploration, and abnormal behaviors for 30 days before and 30 days after parturition in rhesus monkey dams (, N=49). Infants were randomly assigned to be either NR ( = 27) or MPR ( = 22). We also analyzed hair samples for cortisol concentrations three times across the study period (Pregnancy, Neonatal Period, Peak Lactation). Dams of NR infants showed no gross behavioral differences relative to dams of MPR infants (all p's>0.05). Dams of MPR infants showed expected increases in social grooming and social contact, and concomitant decreases in foraging and locomotion, in the 30 days post-partum compared to the 30 days pre-partum (p<0.01). Dams whose infants were NR or MPR showed no differences in hair cortisol concentrations across the study period (p>0.05). We conclude that, with respect to the behavioral and endocrine measures we assessed, nursery rearing of their infants is not detrimental to the welfare of laboratory-housed macaque dams.
虽然实验室饲养的幼年猕猴保育饲养对行为和生理的影响已得到充分描述，但迄今为止，尚无研究考察将幼崽移出由母猴抚养改为保育饲养对非人灵长类母猴的影响。尽管缺乏关于这一主题的证据，但反动物研究组织经常将母婴分离和幼崽保育饲养（NR）视为实验室母猴的福利问题。因此，可能会在没有充分证据的情况下做出有关研究活动的重要政策决定。因此，我们设计了这项研究，以考察参与独立长期纵向研究的实验室母猴在其幼崽接受保育饲养（NR）或母婴同伴饲养（MPR）时的行为和激素反应。我们在恒河猴母猴分娩前30天和分娩后30天评估了其社交、自我护理、环境探索和异常行为（，N = 49）。幼崽被随机分配为接受保育饲养（ = 27）或母婴同伴饲养（ = 22）。我们还在研究期间的三个时间点（怀孕期、新生儿期、泌乳高峰期）分析了毛发样本中的皮质醇浓度。与母婴同伴饲养幼崽的母猴相比，保育饲养幼崽的母猴在行为上没有明显差异（所有p值>0.05）。与分娩前30天相比，母婴同伴饲养幼崽的母猴在产后30天的社交梳理和社交接触预期增加，觅食和活动相应减少（p<0.01）。其幼崽接受保育饲养或母婴同伴饲养的母猴在整个研究期间毛发皮质醇浓度没有差异（p>0.05）。我们得出结论，就我们评估的行为和内分泌指标而言，幼崽的保育饲养对实验室饲养的猕猴母猴的福利没有不利影响。
