Articles | Volume 4, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/pb-4-27-2017
https://doi.org/10.5194/pb-4-27-2017
Research article
 | 
07 Mar 2017
Research article |  | 07 Mar 2017

Suspect Guillain-Barré syndrome in a male rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta)

Tamara Becker, Florian Pieper, David Liebetanz, Martina Bleyer, Annette Schrod, Kerstin Maetz-Rensing, and Stefan Treue

Abstract. Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is a rare, mainly acute inflammatory polyneuropathy in humans. It is frequently post-infectious with auto antibodies being formed against myelin sheaths, resulting in a progressive and more-or-less severe paralysis of the motor neuron and cranial nerves. Mortality is low and 60 % of the patients recover completely from the disease after intensive treatment.

In animals, there are a few diseases that closely resemble GBS, but cases of GBS in monkeys seem to be scarce. In this case report, the clinical course of a progressive tetraplegia in a male rhesus macaque is described. Clinical, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), electroneurography (ENG) and electromyography (EMG), and pathological findings revealed symptoms very similar to human GBS.