Are We a Bunch of Chimps?

[nygirl7]

To be honest I"m not exactly sure where I stand on this, I dont want to see the chimps harmed but somehow my heart says it's better than them doing like they did in the 50s/60s and using people who aren't even aware that they are being infected.

New York Times Most Research on Chimps Is Unnecessary, US Panel Says
New York Times - ‎20 minutes ago‎    

The New Iberia Research Center, part of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, houses chimpanzees for research on Hepatitis C and other life sciences.


Most, but not all, biomedical experiments on chimpanzees are unnecessary, according to a report commissioned by the National Institutes of Health, which found only two areas of research that might warrant use of the animals.

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Still, the report, from a committee of the Institute of Medicine, left the door open for experiments concerning potentially fatal or debilitating human diseases that cannot be done any other way. The N.I.H. was expected to respond on Thursday to the report..

Jeffrey Kahn, chairman of the committee that produced the report and a professor of bioethics and public policy at Johns Hopkins University, said, “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.”

Clearly, the recommendations were open to interpretation. Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, which is strongly opposed to any experimentation on chimpanzees, said, “We’re tremendously encouraged” by the findings that “chimps are largely unnecessary” for research.

But 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 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 is on the wane already — 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. So the immediate effect of the report may be small, and the overall controversy over use of chimps is sure to continue.

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.”

There were two areas where the committee concluded that use of chimpanzees could be necessary. ***One was research on a preventive vaccine for hepatitis C. The committee could not agree on whether this research fit the criteria.   ****  

In the second area, research on immunology involving monoclonal antibodies, the committee concluded that it 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 behavioral experiments, the report recommended that the research should be done only if 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 in New Mexico 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 just released.

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.

As of May, there were 937 chimpanzees in American research centers, the report said.

[fretboard]

Yeah I heard about the chimps on the radio last night or the night before and of course I was thinking how f'dup it would be to inject them chimps with HepC.  Man, that is terrible!!.

[frijole]

I know there is benefit but I just cringe at the thought of injecting a disease into a chimp.  There has got to be another way.

[orphanedhawk]

Yes, thanks for the reminder.
We are not chimps no matter how closely we may be related.

Leave the animals alone.

[Proactive]

"PRINCETON, N.J. , Dec. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Pharmasset, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRUS - News) announced today that the company will amend the design of the QUANTUM Phase 2b trial of the guanine nucleotide analog PSI-938 and discontinue all treatment arms with a regimen containing PSI-938. There are 235 individuals with hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the study who are receiving treatment with PSI-938 alone or in combination with PSI-7977 or PSI-7977 and ribavirin.  During routine safety monitoring, the company detected laboratory abnormalities associated with liver function in subjects receiving PSI-938 300 mg once daily.  These laboratory abnormalities have not been observed in patients receiving PSI-7977 and ribavirin in the QUANTUM study or in other trials evaluating PSI-7977.  Both the 12 and 24-week PSI-7977 and ribavirin arms will continue unchanged, data from which will support  NEUTRINO, an interferon free, 12-week Phase 3 study of PSI-7977 and ribavirin in patients with HCV genotype 1 (GT-1). "
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Pharmasset-Announces-Intent-prnews-1947505080.html?x=0

[Mary4now]

I dont like the idea of using animals either.... I really dont

[starshine1ca]

I completely agree with orphanedhawk.  Chimps in cages=torture. Chimps are so close to our species that we share 98.7% of our DNA.  Just take a moment to look into their eyes.  I would never be able to sleep again if I was ever part of this type of research.    

[orphanedhawk]

I know where I stand.
Leave the animals alone!

I'm a carnivore who is  fed up with our idea that we are the only beings deserving of respectful treatment on that planet.

Chimps in cages=torture.
Thats how I see it.