Pulmonary acariasis in an infant, colony-born rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta)
Leathers, C.W.
Laboratory Animal Science 28(1): 102-103
1978
ISSN/ISBN: 0023-6764 PMID: 416293 Document Number: 137585
An infant rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) that had been conceived and born to wild-caught parents in a laboratory colony at the Bowman Gray School of Comparative Medicine in North Carolina, died of extensive physical trauma at 51 days of age; necropsy revealed small areas of pleural hyperaemia in the left middle and the right caudal lung lobes, and sections of these contained an adult of Pneumonyssus sp. (probably P. simicola Banks) within a small bronchiole, but the absence of significant adjacent inflammation or pigment suggested a recent infection. Pulmonary infection by various species of Pneumonyssus is common in wild-caught Old World monkeys and approaches 100% in adults of M. mulatta. Since the life-cycle of P. simicola appears not to involve an intermediate host, it is not surprising that a laboratory-born rhesus monkey can become infected naturally at less than 51 days old.