Vervet Monkey Disease: Experimental Infection of Monkeys with the Causative Agent, and Antibody Studies in Wild-Caught Monkeys

Abstract

The experimental infection of rhesus and vervet monkeys with the causative agent of a fatal disease in German and Yugoslav laboratory workers is described. All the monkeys developed a uniformly fatal illness irrespective of the dose or route of inoculation. The agent was detected in the monkeys’ blood, tissues, saliva and urine. No complement-fixing antibodies to the agent were detected in any of the 201 mostly vervet monkey sera collected in Uganda in areas from which the incriminated batches came, nor in the serum of one langur monkey which had been in contact with these batches at London. The hazards of handling recently captured wild primates and their tissues are pointed out.