For the past year, the Behavioral Management Consortium of the National Primate Research Centers (NPRCs) has been hosting a quarterly webinar series to enhance the behavioral welfare of nonhuman primates living in research settings. The series features well-qualified speakers discussing a wide variety of topics including social housing and the management of social behavior, environmental enrichment and associated behavioral change, animal training techniques to enhance welfare, behavioral monitoring methods, and defining animal welfare. The Behavioral Management Consortium is very pleased to collaborate with the Association of Primate Veterinarians to invite all members of APV to attend these hour-long webinar presentations. APV members will receive an email notification a few weeks prior to each webinar, and can individually log in to the webinars as desired. Web conference information for joining each session will be distributed 2-days prior to the webinar. If there are multiple participants at your location, please consider reserving a conference room and participate as a group to limit the number of webinar connections.

Our next webinar will be offered on Wednesday, May 15, 2019 at 2:00 EDT, specifically for APV members. Dr. Allison Heagerty of the Oregon National Primate Research Center will speak on “Alopecia in Captive Monkeys: Potential Causes and Treatments."

Speaker: Allison Heagerty, PhD, Social Housing Coordinator, Behavioral Services Unit at the Oregon National Primate Research Center

Title: Alopecia in Captive Monkeys: Potential Causes and Treatments

When: Wednesday May 15, 2019 from 2:00 – 3:00 EST

Description: Alopecia is a common condition among captive non-human primates. Although there has been progress in correlating hair loss to both endogenous and exogenous variables, in the vast majority of cases alopecia has not been definitively attributed to one single cause. In this webinar I will discuss potential welfare implications of alopecia in rhesus macaques, as well as methods for quantifying hair loss. I will then describe various environmental, demographic, and physiological factors that are correlated with hair loss. Finally, I will highlight some potential methods that may help to ameliorate alopecia. This talk will be appropriate for anyone working with nonhuman primates, who are interested in knowing about the current understanding of alopecia in the field of animal welfare.

For more information on the NPRC Behavioral Management Consortium, please click here.