Teratogenicity studies on late blighted potatoes in nonhuman primates (Macaca mulatta and Saguinus labiatus)

Female rhesus monkeys and marmosets were fed a diet containing blighted potatoes (Phytophthora infestans) at a level of 10 g/kg per day for at least two weeks prior to breeding and six weeks following conception in order to gain additional information on the association of blighted potatoes and the development of anencephaly and spina bifida in primate species. There was an absence of either of these neural‐tube defects in 32 rhesus and 14 marmoset infants whose mothers had received a blighted potato diet. In addition there were no cranial osseous defects. There were, however, two rhesus monkey infants with internal hydrocephalus whose mothers had consumed blighted potatoes.