Wildfire Smoke Exposure in Early Pregnancy Affects Infant Monkey Behavior

[Emily]

Wildfire Smoke Exposure in Early Pregnancy Affects Infant Monkey Behavior

• by Andy Fell
• April 01, 2022

​Infant monkeys conceived while their mothers were naturally exposed to wildfire smoke show behavioral changes compared to animals conceived days later, according to a new study from researchers at the California National Primate Research Center at the University of California, Davis. The work is published April 1 in Nature Communications.

The findings show the importance of timing in effects of smoke exposure on pregnancy and suggest a developmental mechanism, said senior author Bill Lasley, professor emeritus of population health and reproduction at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and Center for Health and Environment.

“I think this will have an effect on future studies of exposures in pregnancy, because we’ll know when to look,” Lasley said. Existing studies of environmental exposures during pregnancy in humans are mostly retrospective, and women may not even realize they are pregnant until weeks into the first trimester, he said.

The Camp Fire, which began Nov. 8, 2018, provided a natural experiment in smoke exposure. It blanketed the Davis area, some 100 miles away, with smoke at the peak of breeding season for rhesus macaques housed in outdoor corrals at the California National Primate Research Center...
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https://www.ucdavis.edu/health/news...arly-pregnancy-affects-infant-monkey-behavior