The use of nonhuman primates in research on seasonal, pandemic and avian influenza, 1893-2014.

The use of nonhuman primates in research on seasonal, pandemic and avian influenza, 1893-2014. Antiviral Res. 2015 Mar 5; Authors: Sally Davis A, Taubenberger JK, Bray M Abstract Attempts to reproduce the features of human influenza in laboratory animals date from the early 1890s, when Richard Pfeiffer inoculated apes with bacteria recovered from influenza patients and produced a mild respiratory illness. Numerous studies employing nonhuman primates (NHPs) were performed during the 1918 pandemic and the following decade. Most used bacterial preparations to infect animals, but some sought a filterable agent for the disease. Since the viral etiology of influenza was established in the early 1930s, studies in NHPs have been supplemented by a much larger number of experiments in mice, ferrets and human volunteers. However, the emergence of a novel swine-origin H1N1 influenza virus in 1976 and the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus in 1997 stimulated an increase in NHP research, because these agents are difficult to study in naturally infected patients and cannot be administered to human volunteers. In this paper, we review the published literature on the use of NHPs in influenza research from 1893 through the end of 2014. The first section summarizes observational studies of naturally occurring influenza-like syndromes in wild and captive primates, including serologic investigations. The second provides a chronological account ...
Source: Antiviral Research - Category: Virology Authors: Tags: Antiviral Res Source Type: research