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Earlier this month, the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California, Davis, canceled its tours, turned visitors away, and restricted students’ access to many areas of the facility. Researchers even limited the movements of the animals in the colony, all with the goal of protecting the animals from SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Like humans, monkeys are vulnerable to the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic, although their symptoms are not entirely the same. This has opened up opportunities to study SARS-CoV-2, but has also meant facilities need to institute extensive precautions to prevent unintended contagion, particularly now as the researchers plan nonhuman primate experiments to aid in the development of coronavirus treatments and vaccines.
The level of risk primates face at these facilities is not well known. Investigators in China have shown that rhesus macaques can be infected with SARS-CoV2. “The animals did not demonstrate clinical signs ...
