Zebrafish were made to develop an addiction to nicotine at London’s Queen Mary University and at Oxford University expectant mice were given alcohol to cause birth defects.
JANE DALTON: ‘The US government is quietly using millions of dollars to fund experiments on animals in UK institutions, including making zebrafish addicted to nicotine… Zebrafish were made to develop an addiction to nicotine at London’s Queen Mary University, work for which the US has paid a total of $708,466 so far over 18 months. The fish were mutated for “sensitivity to nicotine reward and impulsivity” to test the theory that genes that change after chronic nicotine exposure are susceptible to addiction…
Pregnant mice were forced to consume alcohol to cause birth defects in other experiments behind closed doors at another UK university, also funded by American tax payers… Researchers told the NIH their goal was to develop new methods for screening for the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure, using smartphones and tablet devices “to detect the facial effects in children and adults and new ways of analysing ultrasound images to detect facial and brain effects in the foetus”…
In all, nine projects in Britain have received more than $17m (£13.1m) from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) since they were launched… Oxford University has received more than $4.9m since 2003 for tests in which expectant mice were given alcohol to cause birth defects, as well as for human medical studies… Other UK projects paid for by the US government have been at Queen Mary University of London; Public Health England; a Japanese company with a base in Cambridge; and the government’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down…
University College London dropped plans to carry out procedures involving sheep and rabbits, electrically stimulating their nerves to find treatments for human conditions such as epilepsy and arthritis, which originally involved an NIH grant application of $776,000. Researchers from the University of Bath worked on medicinal chemistry with counterparts in the US who received funding to make rhesus monkeys addicted to heroin, cocaine and alcohol…
The White Coat Waste project says it tried to launch an advertising campaign about the monkey testing, but the adverts were banned by authorities. The watchdog group gathers its information from government databases, freedom of information requests, members of congress, whistleblowers, official websites and scientific publications. Anthony Bellotti, founder and president, said: “It’s high time to stop shipping hardworking Americans’ money to the UK for nonsense like hooking fish on nicotine and addicting primates to heroin”.’ SOURCE…
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