Chlamydia infections in nonhuman primates

Reports of natural infections with the gram-negative obligatory intracellular bacterium Chlamydia are rare in nonhuman primates (NHPs). This is surprising since all classes of vertebrates are exposed to this highly adaptive bacterial genus. NHPs are susceptible to inoculation with human strains of Chlamydia and have been used as translational models to study C. trachomatis and C. pneumoniae. Especially, genital and ocular C. trachomatis infection remains a significant global health burden in humans and NHPs continue to be used as translational animal models. For this chapter, we will discuss the different species of Chlamydia that infect humans and animals. We will focus on NHPs as a translational animal model for human C. trachomatis infection and discuss our current knowledge of naturally occurring NHP infection with Chlamydia.