Monkey-based experiments to rise

THE number of monkeys and other non-human primates used in animal experiments is expected to rise as new sophisticated therapies are developed for complex diseases.

Scientists made a prediction yesterday as Britain’s Home Office released new figures showing a 6% rise in scientific procedures involving animals between 2006 and 2007.

Total procedures carried out in Britain last year was just more than 3.2 million. It was the sixth year in a row the figure increased, mainly due to the growing use of genetically modified rodents and fish.

About 4,000 procedures involved non-human primates, a fall of 6% on 2006.

But experts warned progress in stem cell research and the development of antibody-based treatments was likely to put pressure on scientists to conduct more primate experiments in the future.

One reason was that animals more closely related to humans than the traditional lab rat or mouse are needed when investigating ways to tackle complex neurodegenerative and autoimmune diseases.

But the scientists made it clear there was no immediate prospect of using great apes, humankind’s closest animal relatives, for such procedures.

Experiments on chimpanzees and other great apes are banned in Britain.

Dr Judy MacArthur Clark, the Home Office’s chief inspector of animal procedures, said there could be no shift in the direction of great apes without a major public and political debate.

“It will not come out of the blue,” she said. “This is not something that’s going to be snuck in. There would be big public and political debate around it before any decisions are taken.”

She personally felt there was no likelihood of great apes being used in laboratories unless the research involved something on the scale of “safeguarding human survival”.