Monkey research can continue ‘with safeguards’

Scientific experiments using monkeys should continue in the UK subject to rigorous safeguards, according to a review of research over a 10-year period.

But the study, commissioned by the country’s biomedical science funding agencies, found that 9 per cent of research projects using monkeys showed “no clear scientific, medical or social benefit”.

“We found that some research projects were unlikely to be beneficial and the claims made for them were implausible,” said Sir Patrick Bateson, president of the Zoological Society of London, who led the review. “In my view, funding of work on non-human primates should not be continued if no effort has been made to demonstrate the potential medical and social benefits of the work.”

However most of the 67 research projects examined – involving a total of 3,000 marmosets and macaques – were outstanding in their scientific quality, likely benefits to medicine and care for the monkeys involved.

The review team of scientists and animal welfare experts made 15 recommendations, to make sure that the maximum benefits are derived from research involving monkeys, with the minimum of suffering for the animals. For example, they said funders should insist on all experimental results being published, even if they are negative.

“Scientific research on monkeys is hugely controversial and raises strong emotions, but an all-or-nothing approach to research on non-human primates would have been stupid,” Sir Patrick said. “Our recommendations . . . will lead to high standards of animal care and the rapid transfer of research findings to medical applications with benefits for both humans and other animals.”

Michelle Thew, chief executive of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, disagreed. “It is still far too easy to subject primates to extremely devastating experiments with little or no human benefit,” she said. “It is now clear that the only measure that would completely protect primates and ensure more productive medical research is to end their use in research.”