Primates as experimental animals

The term "primates" comprises a varied group of animals, consisting of more than 250 different species. The close evolutionary relationship to man resulted in the use of nonhuman primates as subjects of study for scientists from different research fields. In biomedical research the use of primates is restricted to questions which cannot be answered by animals with less developed physiological senses. Primates play an important role in infectious disease research, as many pathogens relevant to humans can be transferred to selected primate species. In the last few decades this applied especially for HIV-infections of man, viral hepatitides, herpesvirus infections and for quite a long time for agents of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, too. In neurobiology, primates play an outstanding role due to the morphological-structural and functional resemblance of their CNS to that of man. Due to new developments in biomedicine, in particular in the field of gene therapeutics, it has to be expected that primates will have to be used also in future as animal models for the welfare of human health.