Addressing the social needs of macaques used for research (2002)

Reinhardt, V.

Abstract

The present paper summarizes the author's experiences transferring a colony of rhesus macaques mulatta) from individual- to pair-caging. ... The implementation of pair-housing as standard caging at Wisconsin RPRC was not excessively expensive in terms of work time and material. It was not a hindrance to active research; rather it improved the animals' behavioral health and made them more species-representative research models. A total of 726 pairs were formed involving 817 different animals, yet no indication was found that this rendered research data collected from them useless due to confounding variables such as stress or disease.