Bordetella bronchiseptica in monkeys: Agglutinin survey and isolation from asymptomatic individuals

Thirty percent of the rhesus monkeys caged in a mainland laboratory colony in Puerto Rico had serum agglutinins for B. bronchiseptica. In contrast, only 12% of the free ranging rhesus onnthe offshore island of Cayo Santiago and none of the on the living rhesus from northern India had agglutinins. In addition, no agglutinins were found in sera from free living long tailed macaques and silver leaf monkeys in Malaysia. In the Puertan Rican laboratory colony, the frequency of the agglutinins was directly related to the age of the monkeys. Two of 14 seronegative monkeys that were removed from Cayo Santiago and placed in the laboratory colony developed agglutinins 15 and 85 days after joining the colony. The organism was cultured from the nasopharynx of two healthy cynomolgus monkeys housed at the University of Michigan. B. bronchiseptica agglutinins were found in six species of monkeys.