Primate housing facilities for pharmaceutical research in SwitzerlandThe Housing of Non-Human Primates Used for Experimental Research and Other Scientific Purposes: Issues for Consideration (1997)

Burge, T. , Weber, H.

Abstract

According to Swiss Animal Welfare Legislation primates should be housed in groups. The minimal enclosure area for macaques of the size of rhesus or cynomolgus monkeys for experimental purposes is 15 cubic meters (e.g. a floor area of about 8 square meters and a height of 2 m.). In such an enclosure up to 5 adult animals may be kept with further 2 cubic meters for each additional animal. For experimental purposes the animals may be held in individual cages temporarily but should then have access to an enclosure of the above mentioned area. A housing system which complies with these regulations and still meets the requirements for animal experimentation in pharmacological research will be presented. The system consisting of cages combined with an indoor enclosure was developed on the basis of our experience gained already in the years before the Swiss legislation came into force. It enables the pharmacologists to use monkeys over years for periodically repeated experiments and to keep them in small groups during the intervening period. Only minor problems, chiefly related to aggression and group incompatibility with some animals when they reached sexual maturity have been encountered.