title: Hair loss and hair-pulling in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta).
abstract: Alopecia is a common problem in rhesus macaque colonies. A possible cause of this condition is hair-pulling; however the true relationship between hair-pulling and alopecia is unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between hair loss and hair-pulling in 1258 rhesus macaques housed in 4 primate colonies across the United States. Alopecia levels ranged from 34.3% to 86.5% (mean, 49.3%) at the primate facilities. At facilities reporting a sex-associated difference, more female macaques were reported to exhibit alopecia than were males. In contrast, more males were reported to hair-pull. Animals reported to hair-pull were significantly more likely to have some amount of alopecia, but rates of hair-pulling were substantially lower than rates of alopecia, ranging from 0.6% to 20.5% (mean, 7.7%) of the populations. These results further demonstrate that hair-pulling plays only a small role in alopecia in rhesus macaques.
authors.affiliation: Southwest National Primate Research Center, Texas Biomedical Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, USA. clutz@txbiomed.org
authors.forename: Corrine K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Lutz
authors.forename: Kristine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Coleman
authors.forename: Julie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Worlein
authors.forename: Melinda A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Novak
mesh_terms: D000505:Alopecia / Q000209:etiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D000822:Animal Husbandry; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D005260:Female; D006197:Hair; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008297:Male; D008992:Monkey Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D014481:United States