Working with rather than against macaques during blood collection (2003)

Reinhardt, V.

Abstract

12 adult pair-housed female, 5 adult single-housed male and 10 adult pair-housed male rhesus macaques, and 6 adult pair-housed female stump-tailed macaques were trained to cooperate during in-homecage blood collection. The total number of training sessions per animal ranged from 2 to 27. Individual training sessions lasted from a few seconds to five minutes, depending on the trainees' responsiveness. Cumulative time to reach the training goal ranged from 16 to 69 minutes with a mean of 38.5 minutes. ... While traditional blood sampling procedures usually require at least two people - one to help restrain the subject, one to puncture a vein and draw blood - only one person is required to do this procedure with a trained subject. Once trained, all animals cooperated not only with the trainer but also with the attending care personnel as well as with experienced personnel from other facilities.