CBC AND SERUM CHEMISTRY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN INDIAN-DERIVED AND CHINESE-INDIAN HYBRID RHESUS-MONKEY INFANTS

Hematological and clinical biochemistry measures are commonly utilized as indicators of the health status of nonhuman primates, Among indivi duals in a population of a given species, there may be considerable va riation in these parameters, Still wider variation may be found among different strains or subspecies of some orders. To date, few studies h ave addressed this phenomenon among strains of nonhuman primates of a given species, Blood samples for hematological and serum biochemical a nalyses were obtained from 29 Indian-derived and 13 Chinese-Indian hyb rid nursery-reared rhesus macaque infants. Total protein, mean corpusc ular hemoglobin concentration, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, erythrocyt e count, hemoglobin, and hematocrit were all higher in the hybrid infa nts, These results indicate that the origin or strain of the animal sh ould be considered when designing studies using rhesus macaques. (C) 1 996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.