A social tethering system for nonhuman primates used in laboratory research

A housing and tether system was designed to permit sampling of body fluids, chronic monitoring of physiologic parameters (e.g. blood pressure, heart rate), performance of species typical behavioral interactions (aggression, affiliation, reproduction, etc), physical exercise (work on a motorized treadmill), assessment of water and diet consumption, as well as feces and urine collection. The system provided primates with the opportunity to engage in species typical social behavior and thereby minimized conditions which have been identified as contributing to the development of abnormal behaviors associated with individual housing. The system consisted of two parts: (a) a specialized cage system for housing small social groups of primates and (b) a tether and indwelling catheter system. Each modular system permitted four adult baboons (Papio cynocephalus anubis) to be tethered and housed in a social group. Each cage was 2.44 x 2.44 x 1.22 m (L x W x H) and could be subdivided by means of woven wire wall partitions. The tether system consisted of a backpack, a cloth jacket, a stainless-steel flexible cable containing electrical cables and catheters, and a saline infusion pump mounted on top of the cage. The system provides laboratory primates with the ability to socially interact with other nonhuman primates. The social cage tether system represents an example of a housing environment which could conform to both the letter and spirit of the new animal welfare legislation and still remain compatible with the objective of obtaining scientific data.