This review presents the results of an informal 1993 survey of the distribution of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in the world\u27s laboratories, and the types of research conducted on them. Based on the available information, there are over 2200 chimpanzees in.laboratories, most of which are located in several US facilities. Europe apparently has less than 200 chimpanzees housed in two facilities. Worldwide, an estimated 80% of the chimpanzees in laboratories are used in studies on AIDS and hepatitis. It is concluded that, if Europe terminated its use of chimpanzees in research, for either financial, moral or political reasons, the impact on experimental research would be relatively minor

Stephens, Martin L.

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WellBeing International WBI Studies Repository 9-1995 Chimpanzees in Laboratories: Distribution and Types of Research Martin L. Stephens The Humane Society of the United States Follow this and additional works at: https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/acwp_lab  Part of the Animal Experimentation and Research Commons, Animal Studies Commons, and the Laboratory and Basic Science Research Commons Recommended Citation Stephens, M. L. (1995). Chimpanzees in laboratories: Distribution and types of research. Alternatives to Laboratory Animals: ATLA, 23:579-583. This material is brought to you for free and open access by WellBeing International. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of the WBI Studies Repository. For more information, please contact wbisr-info@wellbeingintl.org. ATLA 23, 579-583, 1995 First PACE Conference 579 Chimpanzees in Laboratories: Distribution and Types of Research Martin L. Stephens TheHumaneSocietyoftheUnitedStates,2100LStreetN.W., Washington,DC20037, USA Summary - This review presents the results of an informa11993 survey of the distribution of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in the world's laboratories, and the types of research conducted on them. Based on the available information, there are over 2200 chimpanzees in.laboratories, most of which are located in several US facilities. Europe apparently has less than 200 chimpanzees housed in two facilities. Worldwide, an estimated 80% of the chimpanzees in laboratories are used in studies on AIDS and hepatitis. It is concluded that, if Europe terminated its use of chimpanzees in research, for either financial, moral or political reasons, the impact on experimental research would be relatively minor. Key words: chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, animal experiments. The time is ripe for a re-evaluation of the exploitation of chimpanzees in laboratories. Abolitionists accept this readily, but many others are also deeply troubled by the plight of our closest relatives in the laboratory; The famous surgeon, Christiaan Barnard, tells of housing two chimpanzees next to each other for several months in anticipation of using them as unwitting donors of hearts for human patients. When the fateful day came and one was killed in his cage, the other wept bitterly and was inconsolable for days. "The incident made a deep impression on me," Barnard was quoted as saying. "I vowed never again to experiment with such sensitive creatures" (1). The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS; Washington, DC, USA.) has sought to ensure that no more chimpanzees or other primates are taken from the wild for use in research. Several years ago, the HSUS was concerned that the US Federal Government was funding AIDS research on chimpanzees taken from the wild, which would have been a breach of Government policy. Moreover, they suspected that this research was taking place in Europe, away from the spotlight in the US. Working with Jane Goodall, the HSUS was successful in harnessing the help of the US Congress on this issue. Specifically, in the 1989 Congressional Appropriation to the Department of Health and Human Ser-vices (the parent agency of the National Institutes of Health), the lawmakers stated that: "No funds appropriated under this act or any other provisions of law shall be used by the National Institutes of Health, or any other Federal Agency, or recipient of Federal funds, and be expended on any project that entails the capture or procurement of chimpanzees obtained from the wild. "For purposes of this section, the term 'recipient of Federal funds' includes private citizens, corporations, or other research in-stitutions located outside the United States that are recipients of Federal funds." A current HSUS project is targeting the taking of any species of primate from the wild for use in research. The cornerstone of this project is an investigation which was con-ducted in Indonesia into the cruelty of the Martin Stephens (PhD [Biology)) is currently Vice-President for Animal Research Issues at the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). His work and reports are widely published. 580 international trade in wild-caught primates. The HSUS is seeking a legislative remedy for this situation, along the lines of a 4'wild bird" bill that was enacted in the USA in 1992. In Europe, the British Union for the Abolition o[Vivisection (BUAV; London, UK) is waging a similar campaign. In June 1993, the HSUS sought to assess the current scope of chimpanzee use in labor-atories. A number of questions, including where these animals were being held, in what numbers, and for what purposes, were con-sidered. A number of published sources (for example, 2-4) were consulted, but to little avail. Consequently, the assessment relied heavily on telephone interviews with key primatologists and primate veterinarians, who, given the political sensitivities surr-ounding the primate research controversy, will remain anonymous. The resulting profile should be regarded as a rough sketch of the situation. Only two biomedical facilities holding chimpanzees exist in Europe and between them they hold less than 200 individuals (Table D. The United States, on the other hand, has nearly ten times as many chimp-anzees divided among more than a dozen laboratories (Table II). The New Mexico Primate Research Laboratory (NM, USA) held the highest number oflaboratory chimp-anzees, but recently sold most of its chimpan-M.L. Stephens Table I: Numbers of chimpanzees in European laboratories Laboratory BPRC, The Netherlands IMMUNO,Austria Total Number 110 55 165 BPRC = BiomedicalPrimateResearchCentre. zees to the White Sands Research Center (NM, USA). Unfortunately, relevant information from outside the United States and Europe is ex-tremely sketchy (Table III). Africa has atleast two facilities holding chimpanzees, with a combined total of about the same number of animals as in Europe (-165). The circum-stances at one of these facilities (Vilab II) are in flux owing to political instability in Liberia. The 200 or so chimpanzees in Japan are housed at Kyoto University and other (un-known) facilities. There is also speculation that a number of other countries, including China, have chimpanzees in laboratories. Thus, worldwide, there are over 2200 chimpanzees in laboratories. The largest Table II: Numbers of chimpanzees in US laboratories Laboratory Primate Research Laboratory, New Mexico Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates, New York State Ne'w Iberia Research Center, Louisiana Yerkes Primate Center, Georgia (15 bonobosPan paniscus) Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, Texas University of Texas at Bastrop, Texas White Sands Research Center, New Mexico Primate Foundation of Arizona, Arizona Center for Disease Control, Georgia Diagnon, Maryland Food and Drug Administration, Maryland The total number of chimpanzees in US laboratories - 1800. Number 430 250 240 235 220 130 90 45 25 20 20 j An overview of chimpanzee experimentation facilities in Europe and the USA are shown in Figure 1. The two in Europe account for less than 10% of the worldwide total of chimp-anzees in laboratories. Virtually all of these animals are common chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, with only a few bonobos, Pan paniscus. Approximately 15 of the "chimpan-581 zees" registered at the Yerkes Primate Center (GA, USA) are bonobos. Approximately 80% of chimpanzees in lab-oratories are used in AIDS and hepatitis studies. Other types of studies include re-search into reproduction, malaria, river blindness and kuru. The primary studies on Figure 1: Laboratories with the largest numbers of chimpanzees 500 450 400 350 :8300 Ie c '" E-250 :c o '0 200 i; .c E ~ 150 100 50 o CDC PFA IMMUNO WSRC BPRC UT/S SWFSR YERKES NIRC LEMSIP PRL 25 45 55 90 110 130 220 235 240 250 430 laboratory CDC = Center for Disease Control, Georgia, USA; PF A = Primate Foundation of Arizona, USA; IMMUNO is in Austria; WSRC = White Sands Research Center, New Mexico, USA; BPRC = Biomedical Primate Research Centre, The Netherlands; UTIB = University of Texas at Bastrop, USA; SWFBR = Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, Texas, USA; YERKES = Yerkes Primate Center, Georgia, USA; NlRC = New Iberia Research Center, Louisiana, USA; LEMSIP = Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates, New York State, USA; PRL = Primate Research Laboratory, New Mexico, USA. 582 M.L. Stephens Table III: Numbers of chimpanzees in laboratories outside Europe and the USA Laboratory Franceville Primate Centre, Gabon Vilab II, Liberia Japan Russia China India South Africa Cuba Mexico behaviour and/or cognition include the work of Boysen (5), Fouts & Fouts (6), Tomonaga et al. (7) and Hopkins et al. (8; Table IV). tittle, if any, of this research currently takes place in Europe. Behavioural/cognitive studies are typically non·invasive, and at least some of them can give helpful insights into the social and psych-ological world of chimpanzees. Accordingly, campaigners may consider at least some of Number 100 65 -190 not known not known not known not known not known not known these studies to be less objectionable than the more typical chimpanzee experiments; others may even consider them to be laudable. How-ever, the nature of the research which is holding most chimpanzees in captivity is clearly research into diseases rather than into behaviour. In conclusion, these data indicate that Europe has relatively few of the world's chimpanzee facilities and few of the animals Table IV: Current behavioural/cognitive studies of chimpanzees8 in laboratories Number of Cbimp Scientist Facility Speciality chimps names Boysen Ohio State Maths 5 She bah University, USA Sarah Fouts Central Communication 5 Washoe Washington Loulis University, Moja USA Tatu Dar Matsuzawa Kyoto, Japan Perception 4 Ai Rumbaugh Y er kes Primate Language 4 Kanzi Center, Sherman Georgia, USA Austin Lana a A few of the animals in this Table are bonobos (Pan paniscus), rather than chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). An overview of chimpanzee experimentation themselves. Given this situation, if Europe terminated its use of chimpanzees in labor-atories, the impact on experimental research would presumably be relatively minor. Political efforts to phase out chimpanzee use in Europe may be aided by purely financial considerations. The US science press reports that the Biomedical Primate Research Centre (BPRC; at TNO, Rijswick, The Netherlands) may close for lack of funds (see, for example, 9). If that happens, IMMUNO (Austria) would be the only remaining European chimpanzee facility. Campaigners also need to focus on the following: 1. some European countries apparently continue to serve as conduits for chimp-anzees imported from Africa; 2. there is no international register for keeping track of chimpanzees in Euro-pean laboratories; 3. there has been no law in Austria, the home of IMMUNO, that specifically sets standards for the housing and maintenance of chimpanzees in labor-atories. 1 583 References 1. Barnard, C. (1992). Quoted by Abigail Van Buren ("Dear Abby"). St Louis Post Dispatch, 28 December 1992. p. 2D. 2. Anon. (1992). International Directory of Primat-ology. Madison, WI, USA: Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center. 3. Anon. (1988). Resources for Comparative Bio-medical Research, 74 pp. Bethesda, MD, USA: NIH. 4. Anon. (1993). Current Primate References. Seattle, WA, USA: Primate Information Center, University of Washington. 5. Boysen, S. (1992). Pongid pedagogy: the contrib-ution of human-chimpanzee interactions to the study of ape cognition. In The Inevitable Bond: Examining Scientist-Animal Interactions (ed. H. Davis & D. Balfour), pp. 205-217. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 6. Fouts, R.S. & Fouts, D.H. (1993). Chimpanzees' use of sign language. In The Great Ape Project (ed. P. Cavalieri & P. Singer), pp. 28-41. London: Fourth Estate. 7. Tomonoga, M., Itakura, S. & Matsuzawa, T. (1993). Superiority of conspecific faces and reduced in-version effect in face perception by a chimpanzee. Folia Primatologica 61, 110-114. 8. Hopkins, W.O., Morris, R.D., Savage-Rumbaugh, KS. & Rumbaugh, D.M. (1992). Hemispheric prim-ing by meaningful and non-meaningful symbols in language-trained chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): further evidence of a left hemisphere advantage. Behavioral Neuroscience 106, 575-582. 9. Anon. (1993). Leading primate center faces closure. Laboratory Animal 22, 10. IThis should change now that Austria has joined the European Union. 

Chimpanzees in Laboratories: Distribution and Types of Research

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Chimpanzees in Laboratories: Distribution and Types of Research

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