Effect of new training technique on affinity of cynomolgus monkeys for animal care personnel

Abstract

To confirm our hypothesis that the sex and age of cynomolgus monkeys influences the effect of training, we employed a new training technique designed to increase the animal’s affinity for animal care personnel. During 151 days of training, monkeys aged 2 to 10 years accepted each 3 raisins/3 times/day, and communicated with animal care personnel (5 times/day). Behavior was scored using integers between −1 and 5. Before training, 35 of the 61 monkeys refused raisins offered directly by animal care personnel (Score −1, 0 and 1). After training, 28 of these 35 monkeys (80%) accepted raisins offered directly by animal care personnel (>Score 2). The mean score of monkeys increased from 1.2 ± 0.1 to 4.3 ± 0.2. The minimum training period required for monkeys to reach Score 2 was longer for females than for males. After 151 days, 6 of the 31 females and 1 of the 30 males still refused raisins offered directly by animal care personnel. Beneficial effects of training were obtained in both young and adult monkeys. These results indicate that our new training technique markedly improves the affinity of monkeys for animal care personnel, and that these effects tend to vary by sex but not age. In addition, abnormal behavior and symptoms of monkeys were improved by this training.