#biomedical testing

Should We Test a Vaccine for Wild Chimps on Captive Ones?

(Photo: Guenter Guni/Getty Images)

My latest for Takepart:

Let’s say you have a technology that could save chimpanzee and gorilla species, our closest primate kin, from the almost certain prospect of extinction in the wild. But to make it work, you must first do biomedical testing on captive chimpanzees, a practice that has been denouncedas cruel and largely unnecessary by the revered…

Most of the biomedical research currently being done on chimpanzees is unnecessary and the need for chimps in medical studies will soon decline even further, according to a highly-anticipated new report from an independent panel of experts.

The report says that the National Institutes of Health should allow experiments on chimps only if a new set of strict criteria are met, and recommends setting up an independent oversight committee that includes members of the public.

The committee's study was requested by Congress and the NIH in the wake of a controversial plan to takenearly 200 aging chimps housed in New Mexico and make them again available for medical research. Animal welfare activists argued that these "retired" chimps had endured enough and should be left alone.

The new report says that about 1,000 chimps, ranging in age from less than a year old to more than 41 years old, are currently available for research in the U. S., which is largely conducted at four facilities.

According to the new report, biomedical researchers should not use chimps unless their proposed work meets three criteria:

There's no other animal or research model that can be used instead.

There's no way to ethically do the research on people.

Not doing the research on chimps would mean significantly slowing or preventing advances to treat or prevent life-threatening or debilitating conditions.