Experiments on great apes to continue after vote

RESEARCHERS can continue most experiments on mankind’s closest relatives – chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans – after European Union lawmakers watered down proposals to restrict testing.

The EU’s executive commission last year proposed a range of measures to improve the welfare of the 12 million vertebrate animals used in experiments yearly, mostly mice and rats.

The European Parliament backed plans for an upper limit on the level of pain animals should endure and to increase EU efforts to develop non-animal alternatives, with 540 votes in favour and 66 against.