The NIH is expecting to spend another $7.5 million or so by October, and U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has proposed investing even more, suggesting a 27% increase for fiscal year 2022.
NIDHI SUBBARAMAN: The U.S. government is investing heavily to breed more monkeys at the national facilities that house primates for biomedical research, Nature has learnt. The goal is to offset an ongoing shortage of these animals, which grew worse in 2020 as scientists tested scores of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments on primates before trials began in people.
To make room for more monkeys, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has invested about US$29 million over the past two years in refurbishing housing, building outdoor enclosures and making other infrastructure improvements at the US National Primate Research Centers (NPRCs), which it funds. The agency is expecting to spend another $7.5 million or so by October. And U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has proposed investing even more: citing the pandemic, it suggests a 27% increase in funding for the NPRCs in its budget request for fiscal year 2022. If approved by Congress, that would add $30 million for the centres…
US scientists use non-human primates, most commonly rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), to study a range of medical conditions, including infectious diseases. Genetically and physiologically similar to people, primate models offer a way to run tests and experiments before human trials or when human trials are not possible. In 2019, US scientists used 68,257 non-human primates in research, according to the US government…
The issue has drawn public interest — and opposition. Animal-rights groups seeking to stop the use of animals in research have collided with scientists and funders who insist that experiments in model species are necessary to treat and understand scores of conditions, from neurodegenerative diseases to cancer…
In the past decade, after pressure from animal-rights groups, many airlines have stopped carrying primates for research. The NABR filed a complaint with the US Department of Transportation in 2018, asking it to order airlines to carry the animals. Last month, 90 universities, science societies and companies petitioned the department to take up the issue…
“We have been making investments to bring the levels up and to plan for the future,” says James Anderson, director of the NIH Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives in Bethesda, Maryland. “What happens if [a pandemic] happens again, with another virus in three years? We want to be ready for that”…
The pandemic brought the need for research monkeys into sharp relief. “As expected, non-human primates, largely rhesus, were absolutely critical in the early testing of vaccines and therapeutics,” says Anderson… “It’s very encouraging to see the Biden administration make an investment in the future of primate research in the US,” says Matthew Bailey, president of the National Association for Biomedical Research (NABR) in Washington DC, a group that advocates support for animal research…
China has become an important supplier of cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis), but stopped shipping the animals once the pandemic began. The change was hardest on pharmaceutical companies, which prefer that species for drug trials. Anderson says the NIH’s focus is on rhesus macaques, which are most in demand at academic labs. Rhesus monkeys tend to thrive in captive research environments, and decades of research on the species means their biology and genetics are well understood. SOURCE…
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