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Thursday, December 15, 2011 3:57:26 PM
U.S. Suspends Use of Chimps in New Research It Finances
The New Iberia Research Center, part of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, houses chimpanzees for research on Hepatitis C and other life sciences.
By JAMES GORMAN December 15, 2011
The National Institutes of Health on Thursday suspended all new grants for biomedical and behavioral research on chimpanzees and accepted the first uniform criteria for assessing the necessity of such research. Those criteria require that the research be necessary for human health, and that there be no other way to accomplish it.
In making the announcement, Dr. Francis S. Collins, the director of the N.I.H., said the agency was accepting the recommendations released earlier in the day by an expert committee of the Institute of Medicine and would establish a working group to decide how to carry out those recommendations. The decision by the N.I.H. and the recomentions from the Institute of Medicine, a expert advisory group, do not put an end to research on chimps, but were claimed as victories by animal rights groups that have been fighting for ban on such research for decades, arguing that research on chimpanzees was unneeded and cruel to the animal that is human’s closest relative. They said that the move was a step toward eventually ending chimp research, already a tiny segment of federal research.
Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, which is strongly opposed to any experimentation on chimpanzees, said the society was very encouraged by the findings that “chimps are largely unnecessary” for research.
At the same time, people involved in chimp research said they, too, were happy.
Dr. Thomas Rowell, director of the New Iberia Research Center in New Iberia, La., which houses 471 chimpanzees, more than any other center in the country, also said he was “quite pleased” with the report. He said, “It just confirms what we’ve been saying all along in regard to the chimpanzee model for advancing public health research.”
Jeffrey Kahn, chairman of the Institute of Medicine committee that produced the report and a professor of bioethics and public policy at Johns Hopkins University, said the groups recommendations, if adopted would make it harder to use chimps in research.
“What we did was establish a set of rigorous criteria that set the bar quite high for use of chimpanzees in biomedical or behavioral research,” he said.
Until the working group finishes, no new grants will be awarded and all N.I.H. chimpanzees that are not already enrolled in experiments will not be involved in any further research projects. Dr. Collins did not offer a timeline or say how many chimpanzees are currently involved in research.
The Institute of Medicine committee said that most biomedical research using chimpanzees was not necessary, although it left open the possibility for future research, providing enough ambiguity that both supporters and opponents of experimentation on chimps claimed it as good news.
Dr. Thomas Rowell, director of the New Iberia Research Center in New Iberia, La., which houses 471 chimpanzees, more than any other center in the country, also said he was “quite pleased” with the report. He said, “It just confirms what we’ve been saying all along in regard to the chimpanzee model for advancing public health research.”
The Institute of Medicine report is the result of a nearly two-year conflict over bringing semi-retired chimpanzees back into use as experimental subjects, which itself is only one confrontation in a continuing struggle over whether it is morally acceptable and scientifically useful to use chimps in invasive experiments.
Use of chimpanzees had already been waning — partly because it is expensive — and the report covers only chimps owned or supported by the government, 612 of a total of 937 chimps available for research in the United States. Few of these are in experiments at any one time. So the overall controversy over use of chimps is sure to continue.
There are two areas where the committee concluded that use of chimpanzees could be necessary. One is research on a preventive vaccine for hepatitis C. The committee could not agree on whether this research fit the criteria and so left that decision open.
In the second area, research on immunology involving monoclonal antibodies, the committee concluded that experimenting on chimps was not necessary because of new technology, but that because the new technology was not widespread, projects now under way should be allowed to reach completion. For invasive biomedical experiments, the report concluded that the use of chimps was justified when there was no other way to do the research — with other animals, lab techniques or human subjects — and if not doing the research would “significantly slow or prevent important advancements to prevent, control and/or treat life-threatening or debilitating conditions.”
For behavioral experiments, the report recommended that the research should be done on chimps only if the animals are cooperative, and in a way to minimize pain and distress. It also said that the studies should “provide otherwise unattainable insight into comparative genomics, normal and abnormal behavior, mental health, emotion or cognition.”
The report also recommended that chimpanzees be housed in conditions that are behaviorally, socially and physically appropriate. All United States primate research centers are already accredited by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care, and Dr. Kahn said that this accreditation meets the committee’s recommendation.
That was one area where the Humane Society disagreed with the report. “That language,” said Mr. Pacelle, referring to the requirements for adequate cages and enclosures, “was disappointing to us.”
The N.I.H. commissioned the report after an outcry in response to its plan in 2010 to move a colony of chimpanzees it owned out of semi-retirement Alamogordo, N.M., and back into medical research at a primate center in Texas.
The N.I.H. responded in January 2011, by announcing it would leave the chimps in New Mexico for the time being, and by commissioning the Institute of Medicine to do the study released on Thursday. Dr. Collins confirmed that for now, the Alamogordo chimps would stay where they are.
There are two other efforts under way to stop experimentation on chimpanzees. One is the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act of 2011, now before both houses of Congress. Another is a petition before the Fish and Wildlife Service to declare captive chimpanzees endangered, as wild chimpanzees are. The exemption has allowed research to continue and permits the use of chimpanzees in entertainment and the keeping of chimps as pets.
“ ‘Endangered’ stops all those uses,” Mr. Pacelle said, and argued that the Institute of Medicine report, with its skeptical assessment of the value of chimps in research, would provide support for the Fish and Wildlife Service to categorize all chimps as endangered.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/science/chimps-in-medical-research.html
The New Iberia Research Center, part of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, houses chimpanzees for research on Hepatitis C and other life sciences.
By JAMES GORMAN December 15, 2011
The National Institutes of Health on Thursday suspended all new grants for biomedical and behavioral research on chimpanzees and accepted the first uniform criteria for assessing the necessity of such research. Those criteria require that the research be necessary for human health, and that there be no other way to accomplish it.
In making the announcement, Dr. Francis S. Collins, the director of the N.I.H., said the agency was accepting the recommendations released earlier in the day by an expert committee of the Institute of Medicine and would establish a working group to decide how to carry out those recommendations. The decision by the N.I.H. and the recomentions from the Institute of Medicine, a expert advisory group, do not put an end to research on chimps, but were claimed as victories by animal rights groups that have been fighting for ban on such research for decades, arguing that research on chimpanzees was unneeded and cruel to the animal that is human’s closest relative. They said that the move was a step toward eventually ending chimp research, already a tiny segment of federal research.
Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, which is strongly opposed to any experimentation on chimpanzees, said the society was very encouraged by the findings that “chimps are largely unnecessary” for research.
At the same time, people involved in chimp research said they, too, were happy.
Dr. Thomas Rowell, director of the New Iberia Research Center in New Iberia, La., which houses 471 chimpanzees, more than any other center in the country, also said he was “quite pleased” with the report. He said, “It just confirms what we’ve been saying all along in regard to the chimpanzee model for advancing public health research.”
Jeffrey Kahn, chairman of the Institute of Medicine committee that produced the report and a professor of bioethics and public policy at Johns Hopkins University, said the groups recommendations, if adopted would make it harder to use chimps in research.
“What we did was establish a set of rigorous criteria that set the bar quite high for use of chimpanzees in biomedical or behavioral research,” he said.
Until the working group finishes, no new grants will be awarded and all N.I.H. chimpanzees that are not already enrolled in experiments will not be involved in any further research projects. Dr. Collins did not offer a timeline or say how many chimpanzees are currently involved in research.
The Institute of Medicine committee said that most biomedical research using chimpanzees was not necessary, although it left open the possibility for future research, providing enough ambiguity that both supporters and opponents of experimentation on chimps claimed it as good news.
Dr. Thomas Rowell, director of the New Iberia Research Center in New Iberia, La., which houses 471 chimpanzees, more than any other center in the country, also said he was “quite pleased” with the report. He said, “It just confirms what we’ve been saying all along in regard to the chimpanzee model for advancing public health research.”
The Institute of Medicine report is the result of a nearly two-year conflict over bringing semi-retired chimpanzees back into use as experimental subjects, which itself is only one confrontation in a continuing struggle over whether it is morally acceptable and scientifically useful to use chimps in invasive experiments.
Use of chimpanzees had already been waning — partly because it is expensive — and the report covers only chimps owned or supported by the government, 612 of a total of 937 chimps available for research in the United States. Few of these are in experiments at any one time. So the overall controversy over use of chimps is sure to continue.
There are two areas where the committee concluded that use of chimpanzees could be necessary. One is research on a preventive vaccine for hepatitis C. The committee could not agree on whether this research fit the criteria and so left that decision open.
In the second area, research on immunology involving monoclonal antibodies, the committee concluded that experimenting on chimps was not necessary because of new technology, but that because the new technology was not widespread, projects now under way should be allowed to reach completion. For invasive biomedical experiments, the report concluded that the use of chimps was justified when there was no other way to do the research — with other animals, lab techniques or human subjects — and if not doing the research would “significantly slow or prevent important advancements to prevent, control and/or treat life-threatening or debilitating conditions.”
For behavioral experiments, the report recommended that the research should be done on chimps only if the animals are cooperative, and in a way to minimize pain and distress. It also said that the studies should “provide otherwise unattainable insight into comparative genomics, normal and abnormal behavior, mental health, emotion or cognition.”
The report also recommended that chimpanzees be housed in conditions that are behaviorally, socially and physically appropriate. All United States primate research centers are already accredited by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care, and Dr. Kahn said that this accreditation meets the committee’s recommendation.
That was one area where the Humane Society disagreed with the report. “That language,” said Mr. Pacelle, referring to the requirements for adequate cages and enclosures, “was disappointing to us.”
The N.I.H. commissioned the report after an outcry in response to its plan in 2010 to move a colony of chimpanzees it owned out of semi-retirement Alamogordo, N.M., and back into medical research at a primate center in Texas.
The N.I.H. responded in January 2011, by announcing it would leave the chimps in New Mexico for the time being, and by commissioning the Institute of Medicine to do the study released on Thursday. Dr. Collins confirmed that for now, the Alamogordo chimps would stay where they are.
There are two other efforts under way to stop experimentation on chimpanzees. One is the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act of 2011, now before both houses of Congress. Another is a petition before the Fish and Wildlife Service to declare captive chimpanzees endangered, as wild chimpanzees are. The exemption has allowed research to continue and permits the use of chimpanzees in entertainment and the keeping of chimps as pets.
“ ‘Endangered’ stops all those uses,” Mr. Pacelle said, and argued that the Institute of Medicine report, with its skeptical assessment of the value of chimps in research, would provide support for the Fish and Wildlife Service to categorize all chimps as endangered.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/science/chimps-in-medical-research.html
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