Chimpanzees in biomedical research colonies are “responsibly managed, well-regulated, and offer a resource of international value that benefits the health of humans and supports wild ape conservation efforts,” the APS told the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The APS comments, submitted January 27, 2012, were made in response to a request for information about a proposed change to the listing of captive chimpanzees under the Endangered Species Act. A group of animal rights and conservation organizations led by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) had petitioned the FWS to re-classify captive chimpanzees as endangered. Currently, wild chimpanzees are considered endangered while chimpanzees that were in captivity as of 1976 along with their offspring are considered threatened. Classifying research chimpanzees as endangered would effectively halt their use in biomedical research.
The petitioners argued that the use of captive chimpanzees in entertainment, the pet trade, and biomedical research undermined conservation efforts aimed at stabilizing wild chimp populations. The APS comments pointed out that the evidence presented to substantiate this claim that the use of captive chimpanzees negatively affected wild populations focused on the pet and entertainment sectors. In contrast, a stable population of research chimpanzees, maintained in modernized and ethologically appropriate facilities, is in keeping with conservation goals.
The APS noted the layers of regulation and oversight in place to ensure humane care of chimpanzees in research. In addition to protections already in place, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has recently adopted the recommendations of an Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee that assessed the need for chimpanzees in medical research. This panel looked at current NIH-funded research involving chimpanzees and recent scientific trends. It concluded that while “the chimpanzee has been a valuable animal model in past research,” the need for chimpanzees as a research model has declined and will likely continue to do so. Nevertheless, the panel foresaw potential future need and recommended that a colony be maintained to ensure against emerging disease threats.
The U.S. colony also serves as an international resource. Between 2005 and 2010, organizations based in Italy, Japan, Denmark, Belgium, Spain, and France funded a total of 27 studies involving U.S. chimps. Moreover, both the European Commission’s Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences have affirmed that research with chimpanzee can offer valuable insights and directed scientists to conduct necessary research in the United States.
In addition to aiding human health research, the U.S. colony has also contributed to the development of vaccines to help wild apes. Recently a proof of concept study conducted with six chimpanzees at the New Iberia Research Center demonstrated that a potential Ebola vaccine successfully stimulated an immune response and was safe for the vaccinated apes (See “Chimps on the Forefront of Discovery,” The Physiologist, April 2011). This study moved forward an ongoing effort to protect wild apes against Ebola, which is estimated to have decreased the wild gorilla population by one third. The increase in ecotourism as well as permanent human populations that come into contact with apes has led to an increase in chimpanzees and gorillas exposed to diseases to which they have no prior immunity, a phenomenon that only increases the likelihood that research into more vaccines for wild apes will be needed.