UC Davis veterinary and human health experts today (Oct. 26) provided perspective on a newly identified virus that sickened monkeys and may have infected an employee at the campus’s California National Primate Research Center last year.

The employee made a full recovery, and no other center personnel or monkeys outside the Titi monkey colony became sick. There is no indication that the new virus, of a type known as an adenovirus, had infected anyone else or that it can spread from person to person.

Thomas Ferguson, medical director of Student Health Services, and Dabi Gurmu, medical director of the UC Davis Employee Health Service, stressed that there is no risk to the campus community.

UC San Francisco virologist Charles Chiu, who identified the adenovirus, reported his finding late last week at a meeting of infectious disease experts in Vancouver, B.C.

"While Dr. Chiu's finding is very interesting scientifically, the illnesses occurred a year ago and pose no threat to center personnel or to the general public," Dallas Hyde, director of the primate center, said in a message to the center staff this afternoon. Hyde is a professor of anatomy, physiology and cell biology in the School of Veterinary Medicine.

Hyde told the staff to continue following the center’s usual protocol for wearing protective clothing when entering animal housing areas.

Chiu reported that he had found antibodies to the novel virus in the blood of an employee who worked closely with the monkeys — evidence that the employee had been infected with the virus.

This would be the first time an adenovirus had been shown to jump species, Chiu said. His findings have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal. An adenovirus is a type of virus that commonly causes respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms.

The employee had experienced a flulike illness around the same time that the monkeys fell ill. The employee recovered uneventfully without medical treatment.

No other employees who worked with the Titi colony were found to have developed antibodies showing that they had been exposed to the virus. Nor did any monkeys outside the colony.

Respiratory disease in 2009

An outbreak of respiratory disease swept through the Titi monkeys from May through August of 2009. Of 74 animals in the colony, which is housed indoors, 23 became sick and 19 died. The center quarantined the colony and brought the outbreak under control.

Primate center staff investigating the monkey illness suspected that it was caused by an adenovirus. They sent tissue samples to Chiu, an expert in detecting new viruses.

Some months after the employee recovered, Chiu ran a blood test that was positive for antibodies to the adenovirus that he had identified. Thirteen other staff who worked with the same monkeys tested negative.

It is not clear where the virus came from. No new animals have been added to the UC Davis Titi monkey colony from outside the group for several years.

Among national primate research centers, the one at UC Davis is the only one with a Titi colony. The South American natives live in small family groups and are used mostly for behavioral research.

Primate center officials reported the respiratory disease outbreak to the campus veterinarian. The university followed all relevant health and safety requirements in the containment, investigation and reporting of the outbreak.

The state Public Health Laboratory collaborated with UCSF and UC Davis to characterize the novel virus and was aware of the human case.

The National Center for Research Resources, an arm of the National Institutes of Health that provides core funding for the primate center, was also made aware of the outbreak.