The California National Primate Research Center at UC Davis has been cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for not preventing illness or injury to a number of rhesus macaque monkeys housed at the center three years ago, UC Davis officials reported today. The citation carried no fines or enforcement actions.

The USDA citation stemmed from the deaths of 19 animals in the primate center’s outdoor breeding colony in 2009 and 2010.

The deaths were related to infections, injuries and/or inadequate maternal care, common causes of mortality in outdoor colonies, especially among younger animals.

"We take our responsibility to care for these animals very seriously. We are committed to doing everything we can to improve," said Dallas Hyde, professor of veterinary medicine at UC Davis and the center's director... Read More

Part of the ancient mystery of the makeup of the modern Western dog has been solved by a team led by researchers at the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine.

Several thousand years after dogs originated in the Middle East and Europe, some of them moved south with ancient farmers, distancing themselves from native wolf populations and developing a distinct genetic profile that is now reflected in today’s canines.

These findings, based on the rate of genetic marker mutations in the dog’s Y chromosome, supply the missing piece to the puzzle of when ancient dogs expanded from Southeast Asia. The study results are published online this month in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution... Read More