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Washington / Göttingen (dpa) - Experimental monkeys for research cost a lot of money, their use is ethically controversial, and yet they are often viewed as indispensable in medical research.
In the corona pandemic, the need for primates has grown in both academic and pharmaceutical research. But an important source for the USA and Europe has dried up: since China stopped exports of wild animals and laboratory animals after the start of the corona pandemic, monkeys have also stopped being sold abroad for research purposes. Scientists fear consequences for the approval of new drugs and vaccines.
"What is at stake is actually pretty clear: They need these animals to test almost all drugs - in any case all vaccines we are talking about now - for their safety and effectiveness," says Stefan Treue.
The professor is the spokesman for the information platform “Understanding Animal Experiments” and the director of the German Primate Center (DPZ).
"If there are not enough animals, certain studies will not be able to be carried out."
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On the other hand, the following also applies: Corona has fueled the development of alternative methods to animal experiments. Researchers are working on artificial organ models, computer simulations and imaging techniques to advance the fight against the virus. Experiments with lung or intestinal tissue can be carried out on special chips, as the neurobiologist Roman Stilling from “Understanding Animal Experiments” recently explained. "With these instruments, important insights have been and are being gained - but they cannot yet completely replace the immune system of an entire organism."
The vast majority of medical research, including Corona, is already taking place with cell cultures or in test tubes. Dilyana Filipova from the Doctors Against Animal Experiments Association regrets that the state funding system in Germany does not support this trend. "The development of animal-free research is funded with one percent of all funds."
There are two reasons for the lack of experimental monkeys complained about in Europe and the USA: On the one hand, the need for experimental monkeys has increased due to the search for vaccines and drugs against corona.
Tests with monkeys have not been omitted for any of the currently approved vaccines.
On the other hand, China stopped the ape trade with foreign countries in January 2020 as a result of the corona outbreak.
Until then, according to the Foundation for Biomedical Research in Washington, about 60 percent of all monkeys imported into the United States for research purposes came from China.
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The Primate Center in Göttingen - a non-university, publicly funded research facility - breeds most of the animals it needs for basic research itself and also makes them available to other academic research institutions in Germany. That makes the DPZ largely independent. Nevertheless, the effects of the Chinese export ban can be felt. "Because research in connection with Corona has of course also increased our needs," says Treue. "Normally in such a case we would have imported additional animals for our research, but that is not possible at the moment." The apes are also similar to humans in the reproductive cycle - therefore the breeding numbers cannot simply be increased overnight.
Other countries such as Mauritius, which export experimental monkeys, also state that their capacities are exhausted, says Treue. The majority of the test monkeys nationwide are used for research in industry. According to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, a total of two million vertebrates and cephalopods such as octopuses were used in animal experiments in 2019, including almost 3,300 monkeys and monkeys. Great apes have not been used in Germany since 1992. In the EU, monkeys make up less than one percent of all animals used for research, according to the European Association of Animal Experiments (EARA).
Experiments with monkeys are among the most controversial animal experiments.
Again and again there are allegations that such animals are unnecessarily tortured for a meager gain in knowledge.
At least the deputy director and senior veterinarian Skip Bohm of the Primate Center Tulane in the US state of Louisiana is convinced that they are indispensable in numerous studies.
“Every year, the supply barely covers the demand.
But an emergency like a pandemic takes it to extremes. "
Because fighting the pandemic was given priority, animals were withdrawn from other research areas in order to use them for the development of vaccines and medicines.
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There are a total of seven primate centers in the United States. She founded the most important authority for biomedical research in the country, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in the early 1960s. Tulane alone has 5,000 animals. Some people assume that should be enough to run all experiments on the coronavirus, says Bohm. But it should be remembered that breeding must be maintained at the same time - only some of the animals are therefore available for experiments.
Experimental monkeys have also become rare in China itself. The demand was already high before the pandemic and has now increased significantly again, says Wang Hui, seller of the Beijing company Prima Biotech, which breeds monkeys and dogs for scientific research. "Lots of big companies buy monkeys in very large quantities." Prices have risen sharply; even before the pandemic, they were around 20,000 yuan (the equivalent of 2,570 euros). "It's more today," says Wang, but does not give a specific number. According to Chinese press reports, around 60,000 yuan, equivalent to 7,700 euros, will have to be spent on an experimental monkey today.
The animal experimentation association EARA called on the World Health Organization in November to act on China to ease the export ban on primates for biomedical research. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing continues to justify the continuation with the pandemic. As soon as the international situation improves, China will “actively” consider resuming import and export permits, it said.
Stefan Treue, on the other hand, is convinced of “Understanding Animal Experiments” that China is more hesitant for reasons of science and strategy.
"My impression is that the Chinese have realized that they want to bring their own biomedical research even more up to world standards."
For the USA and Europe this should be an occasion to think about increasing the breeding capacities.
Because you have to rely on animal experiments.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210516-99-615392 / 2