Suspected ascorbic acid deficiency in a colony of squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus)

Subperiosteal cranial hematomas were observed in five female squirrel monkeys. The absence of trauma in the clinical history, the characteristic clinical changes, and the pathological lesions suggested that the animals were scorbutic. Analysis of feed which was soaked in water, or left on the ground for varying time periods at different temperatures, indicated that there was loss of ascorbic acid. During the manufacture of monkey feed, ascorbic acid is dusted on as a final process. The practice of soaking feed resulted in the "washing off" or the destruction of ascorbic acid. This disease outbreak emphasized the important of management practices in a primate colony.