The committee found that two types of medical research may conceivably need chimpanzees going forward. In the first, researchers were divided as to whether research on a hepatitis C vaccine might require chimpanzees. The committee also concluded that, while other ways to conduct monoclonal antibody research exist, those techniques are not widespread and so existing chimpanzee research in this area should be allowed to continue.
All other invasive biomedical research on chimpanzees will only be allowed if there are no other ways to do so in other animals or in vitro experiments, and if not doing so would significantly slow the progress towards treatments for life-threatening or debilitating diseases, the guidelines stated. Behavioral research can only be done if it minimizes pain and distress to the animals and provides “otherwise unattainable insight into comparative genomics, normal and abnormal behavior, mental health, emotion or cognition,” the recommendations said.
The findings only apply to the 612 chimpanzees owned or financed by the government. There are an additional 325 chimpanzees in research facilities around the country. Not all of these chimpanzees are in research studies at one time.
RSS