Sanitary aspects of handling non-human primates during transport. Report of the Federation of European Laboratory Animal Science Associations (FELASA) Working Group on Non-human Primate Health accepted by the FELASA Board of Management, April 1997.

Biomedical research has a need to use nonhuman primates in cases where no other species offer the specific scientific information required or the necessary predictability of results for the development of medicaments and vaccines. Biomedical research would prefer purpose-bred animals of known history, with an amount of background information necessary for the interpretation of findings from animal experiments. However, the existing breeding centres cannot completely fulfil the requirements of biomedical research and for some species no breeding centres of importance have yet been created due to the difficulty in predicting requirements and the high investment costs of such an endeavour. Therefore, a certaineventually diminishing-demand for feral animals will continue in the near future. However, even such animals should be delivered in good health and after a quarantine period at the supplier institution. Most of the large breeding centres for macaques at least exist in Asia, Mauritius and to a certain extent in the USA. Breeding