NIH Committee Retiring Most Research Chimps
January 24th, 2013 // 3:46 pm @ jmpickett
In a closely watched recommendation, a National Institutes of Health working group has recommended that the agency retire all but 50 chimps for use in medical research. The proposal, which comes after the NIH decided in late 2011 to phase out most research using chimpanzees, means that hundreds of chimps will be sent to a national sanctuary. Already, a few chimps have reportedly been moved to the Chimp Havensanctuary.
The recommendation (which you can read here) follows a 2011 report from the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council that concluded chimps are not necessary for most biomedical and behavioral research, and could not identify areas of current research for which chimps are essential. The report also offered criteria for when chimps can be determined for current and future research.
The IOM report followed a ruckus when the NIH moved more than a dozen chimps that were no longer used for research back into active use, prompting outcries from animal-rights activists and a Congressional directive for the NIH to study the use of chimps in medical research. The agency bred chimps for HIV and AIDS research in the 1990s, but the animals were not suitable subjects, which created a surplus in laboratories, The Washington Post notes.
The NIH Council of Councils Working Group approved the proposal, but the agency will accept public comments for two months. Meanwhile, “existing NIH policy pertaining to chimpanzees in research remains in effect. NIH will not fund any new or other competing projects (renewal and revisions) for research involving chimpanzees and will not allow any new projects to go forward with NIH-owned or -supported chimpanzees,†the agency says. Here is the existing agency policy toward chimps.
The recommendation was hailed by animal-rights groups. “There are top-notch sanctuaries in the US, including federal sanctuary Chimp Haven that have the capacity to expand and are ready to work with the government to provide these chimpanzees with the retirement they so greatly deserve,†says Kathleen Conlee, vp of animal research issues at The Humane Society of the United States. Chimp Haven was created on 200 acres in a park in Louisiana.
Earlier this month, the Humane Society succeeding in pressuring Gilead Sciences (GILD) to end the use of chimpanzees in research. The move came after the animal-rights organization last fall submitted a shareholder proposal urging the biotech to phase out the use of the primates in its medical research
