Paralytic illness resembling inflammatory polyradiculoneuropathy in a chimpanzee

Abstract

An adult male chimpanzee housed in an outdoor corral with a group of other chimpanzees had an acute onset of ascending motor paresis that progressed to flaccid tetraplegia over 3 days. Tendon reflexes were weak, and CSF protein concentration was high. The chimpanzee regained normal mobility over several months. This chimpanzee's ascending, symmetrical, monophasic, flaccid paralytic illness, with albuminocytologic dissociation in CSF, and recovery following supportive treatment, was characteristic of inflammatory polyradiculoneuropathy, known as Guillain-Barré syndrome in human beings. Coonhound paralysis and experimentally induced allergic neuritis are the counterparts in dogs and laboratory animals, respectively, of the syndrome. In human beings, the syndrome is apparently immunologically mediated, as it is known to develop after bacterial and viral infections, vaccinations, and surgery or injury. The chimpanzee of this report had been given a rabies vaccination and had been treated for dental abscess 12 days prior to onset of signs, and had been inoculated with material containing neuronal antigens 20 years prior to onset of signs.