NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

April 2025

U.S. Drives Monkey Business in Mauritius, While Controversy Grows

The world’s primary supplier of macaques to U.S. and European labs is Mauritius, a small island nation in the Indian Ocean, which has exported over 43,000 monkeys to the United States since 2020. Monkeys are used in vaccine research and development and drug safety testing, which involve purposely making the animals very sick, causing tremendous suffering and loss of life. Driven by high demand from laboratories, macaques used for research can cost as much as $20,000 per animal, and Mauritius has been capitalizing on this trade since China stopped exporting macaques in 2020 and the alleged illegal trade of wild-caught monkeys from Cambodia was uncovered in 2022.

Macaques are not native to Mauritius, and some view them as destructive pests and claim that profits generated from their sale for research negate any ethical concerns that surround this issue. Bioculture Group traps 1,500 macaques from the wild annually, despite already having 30,000 captive monkeys for breeding. They pay local villagers up to $200 for allowing the company to set up traps on their property. Trapped monkeys howl all night, upsetting families in the neighborhood, a growing number of whom think it’s cruel to exploit the animals in this way.

As in the U.S., the primate trade and research in Mauritius has also become political. “It is an unprecedented, vulgar business,” said Arvin Boolell, Mauritius’s Minister of Agroindustry, Food Security, Blue Economy, and Fisheries in 2023. “We should treat animals like our friends. Unfortunately, we’ve lost our souls for speculative infrastructure development and wealth.” However, Boolell walked back these comments in 2024 after his party regained control and has declined to say if he still supports ending the primate trade.

In the U.S., pro-animal research interest groups have been lobbying Congress for more funding to support primate research and breeding and have managed to convince some senators to allocate funds in previous spending bills. Thanks to much outcry from the public and animal groups, including AAVS, that funding was quashed, never making it to the final federal budget. Congress has already started working on the fiscal year 2026 budget, and we will be sure to keep our supporters updated on the issue.

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Other News

NIH Plans to Prioritize Human-Based Research Technologies

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced a plan to establish the Office of Research Innovation, Validation, and Application (ORIVA) within NIH’s Office of the Director, which would “develop, validate, and scale the use of non-animal approaches across the agency’s biomedical research portfolio.” We have great confidence in Nicole Kleinstreuer, the Acting NIH Deputy Director for Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives, who is helping to lead this initiative, and we support the vision of ORIVA, which would address issues raised by AAVS over the years.

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Historic Pandemic Agreement Includes Animals

Recognizing the important beneficial roles animals can play in safeguarding human and environmental health, and viewing them not simply as carriers of disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) finalized draft text of a global pandemic agreement, which includes animals in articles concerning pandemic prevention and One Health. The World Federation for Animals, of which AAVS is a founding member, worked directly with WHO member states to legitimize animals as part of the solution to global sustainability.

FDA Announces Plan to Reduce Animal Testing

The Food and Drug Administration has published a roadmap to reduce animal testing in the development of monoclonal antibodies and other drug products. If this roadmap leads to regulation, the use of non-animal methods would increase, and many animals would be spared from unnecessary suffering. AAVS will continue to monitor the situation and report any important updates.

EU Animal Testing Declining, Biotech Grows

The European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods has released its 2024 status report on the use of animals for scientific purposes which documents a 5% reduction in the number of animal procedures conducted in the European Union and Norway from 2018 to 2022. Animals were used in nearly 8.5 million procedures, mostly for basic and applied biomedical research, while biotechnology has made significant progress to develop and implement the use of alternatives to replace animal tests.

SANCTUARY MOMENT

Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Dora Goes to the Doctor

Ever wonder how a chimpanzee goes to the vet? In a recent blog post, Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest (CSNW) took readers along as Dora got a physical exam. Like other chimp sanctuaries supported through AAVS’s Sanctuary Fund, CSNW has a fully equipped veterinary clinic, complete with x-ray, EKG, ultrasound, and surgical and anesthesia equipment to ensure the animals get the best care possible.

As you can imagine, because chimpanzees are wild animals, they cannot just be walked over to the clinic. For everyone’s safety, the chimpanzees are anesthetized, and their caregivers use positive reinforcement to help minimize everyone’s stress. This eliminates the need for the chimps to be darted, which is a scary reminder of a practice routinely used by labs. Dora has been trained to willingly take the anesthetic injection so that veterinary professionals can give her a complete examination. Her most recent visit included bloodwork, cardiac testing, a dental exam and cleaning, and x-rays of her abdomen and joints to catch any potentially serious problems early or detect chronic conditions like heart disease or arthritis that could be treated before things get worse. Happily, Dora received a clean bill of health!

We’re grateful that CSNW takes such excellent care of Dora and the other chimpanzees. They also do a wonderful job sharing everything that’s going on with the chimpanzees and what life is like for them at the sanctuary. Be sure to check them out!

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