NIH To Retire 310 Chimps Previously Used In Biomedical Research

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced on Wednesday plans to significantly reduce the use of chimpanzees in its biomedical research and says it intends to retire 310 of the approximately 360 chimps that it currently owns or supports.

Though the NIH plans to retain about 50 chimpanzees for future biomedical research, the remaining population of 310 animals that are designated for retirement could eventually join the more than 150 other chimpanzees that currently reside in the Federal Sanctuary System, the NIH said in a press release.

"Americans have benefited greatly from the chimpanzees' service to biomedical research, but new scientific methods and technologies have rendered their use in research largely unnecessary," said NIH Director Dr. Francis S. Collins. "Their likeness to humans has made them uniquely valuable for certain types of research, but also demands greater justification for their use. After extensive consideration with the expert guidance of many, I am confident that greatly reducing their use in biomedical research is scientifically sound and the right thing to do."

A number of events took place that led up to the NIH decision to retire the majority of its research chimp population. They are as follows:

In December 2010, NIH Director Collins commissioned a study by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to determine the continued scientific need for chimpanzees in NIH-funded research.

The IOM agreed to undertake the study and in December 2011 it unveiled its recommendations. Chiefly, the IOM concluded that most current use of chimps in biomedical research is unnecessary and that the use of these animals in research that may still be needed should be guided by a set of principles and criteria.

Collins accepted the IOM recommendations and followed up on them that same month. In December 2011 he charged a working group of the Council of Councils (CoC), an independent advisory committee, to make recommendations on how the NIH should implement the IOM principles and criteria.

The CoC presented its recommendations in January 2013 and Collins agreed to accept most of them. In accepting the recommendations, the NIH has outlined a series of plans to put them in place. Among them:

1. Retain but not breed a small fraction of chimps for future research that meets the IOM principles and criteria.

2. Provide ethologically appropriate facilities, such as those that would occur in their natural environment, for those chimpanzees as defined by NIH based on the advisory council recommendations.

3. Establish a review panel to consider research projects proposing the use of chimpanzees with the IOM principles and criteria after projects have cleared the NIH peer review process.

4. Wind down research projects using NIH-owned or -supported chimpanzees that do not meet the IOM principles and criteria in a way that preserves the research and minimizes the impact on the animals.

5. Retire the majority of the NIH-owned chimpanzees deemed unnecessary for biomedical research to the Federal Sanctuary System.

"Today's decision by NIH culminates more than two years of intense deliberations among NIH leadership, independent chimpanzee experts, researchers, bioethicists, and members of the public," said James Anderson, deputy director for program coordination, planning, and strategic initiatives, whose division oversees the NIH Chimpanzee Management Program. "We are grateful to all who have contributed their insight and expertise during the advisory process."