Working Group - Biomedical

Scientific American | Meredith Wadman | December 2011

In a watershed moment for chimpanzee research, the U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report on December 15 declaring that "most current use of chimpanzees for biomedical research is unnecessary" and recommending the sharp curtailing of government-funded research on humankind's closest genetic relative. Within an hour, Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which funds research on chimpanzees, announced that he accepted the recommendations and would move to implement them as swiftly as possible.

16/12/2011
Click here to read on...

NEW IBERIA, La. - In a dome-shaped outdoor cage, a dozen chimpanzees are hooting. The hair on their shoulders sticks straight up. "That's piloerection," a sign of emotional arousal, says Dr. Dana Hasselschwert, head of veterinary sciences at the New Iberia Research Center. She tells a visitor to keep his distance. The chimps tend to throw pebbles - or worse - when they get excited.

06/12/2011
Click here to read on...

FORT PIERCE, Fla. | April 2011

Donovan the chimp transformed from a friendly ape who "adapts well to peers" to one who beat his female cage-mate so aggressively they had to be separated.

Lira became a "chronic hair plucker," with large barren patches on her body.

Bobby bit and mutilated his own arm, leaving permanent scars. He was so depressed that he slept sitting up, facing the wall of his cage.

The debate about medical testing on chimpanzees often revolves around the physical impact on the chimps - week after week of liver biopsies or year after year of being infected with HIV or hepatitis.

01/05/2011
Click here to read on...

Will growing interest in how the legal system deals with animals ultimately lead to changes for researchers?

At the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Beaverton, some 20 law students tour the outdoor enclosures that house breeding colonies of macaque and rhesus monkeys and talk with the veterinarian in charge of their care. "It's a very powerful trip for the students," says Kathy Hessler, who teaches a course on animal law at Lewis & Clark Law School in nearby Portland. "Some of them are really shaken." That's not because they see violations of the law, Hessler explains: "The primate center is working very hard to meet the requirements under the law, but there's a disconnect between what the law provides and what the students think the animals need."

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/332/6025/28.full

01/04/2011
Click here to read on...

The National Anti-Vivisection Society and Animal Defenders
International uncover figures that show the UK is the biggest user of
primates in the EU 
 
The National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) has welcomed the recent
publication by the European Commission of its Sixth Statistical Report
on the numbers of animals used in EU laboratories in 2008, the purpose
of which ultimately allows analysis of trends in animal experiments
and a direct comparison of the efforts of individual Member States to
replace animal testing.

20/10/2010
Click here to read on...

Animal Defenders International(ADI) launched a campaign to secure public support to

prevent the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) from performing

radiation experiments on monkeys as part of plans to travel to Mars.

This follows a major ADI public and Congressional drive in the USA to

try and prevent NASA from proceeding with similar experiments on

squirrel monkeys.
 

19/10/2010
Click here to read on...