Grad School Reviews Animal Assignments at Primate Center
Graduate School Dean Virginia Hinshaw has issued three statements regarding the Primate Center’s use of its monkeys housed at Henry Vilas Zoo in invasive research procedures. All three statements can be read online:
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The Graduate School and the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center are taking steps to clarify and confirm the center’s animal assignment process.
With that goal in mind, Graduate School Dean Virginia Hinshaw on Wednesday appointed Christine Parks, director of the Research Animal Resources Center, to review animal-assignment procedures at the center. The review will follow up on reports that some monkeys owned by the Primate Center and housed at Henry Vilas Zoo were inappropriately assigned to invasive research projects.
Parks is responsible for maintaining the high standards for animal care on campus, and her expertise and experience will be an asset to the center, Hinshaw says.
“The Primate Center is an extremely valuable resource,” she says. “Its investigators are working to increase understanding of basic biological processes, as well as human health problems such as AIDS, diabetes, cancer and other diseases associated with aging. Public support of the center is invaluable to us.”
On Aug. 9, the Capital Times reported that numerous rhesus monkeys from the center’s Vilas Zoo colony were assigned to invasive research projects, an apparent breach of an 8-year-old local agreement between directors of the center and the zoo. After the report, Hinshaw ordered an inventory of all monkeys from the Vilas colony that had been assigned to center projects since the June 15, 1989, agreement. That agreement states that animals from the Vilas colony are not to be used in studies involving invasive experimental procedures.
The inventory confirmed a breach of that agreement. The records showed that a total of 65 monkeys were used in invasive research, and 39 of those monkeys died or were euthanized as a result of the research. An additional 26 monkeys from the Vilas colony were euthanized and used in a tissue-distribution program between 1990 and 1996. That program, which ended last year, provided researchers with normal tissue important for biomedical research.
A number of factors contributed to the breach, Hinshaw says. The Primate Center had a great deal of personnel turnover since 1989, and there was limited distribution of the policy among staff. There were also varying interpretations of what the agreement covered. Hinshaw plans to meet soon with the directors of the center and the zoo to reach a consensus on the policy, noting that UW–Madison is committed to following the spirit of the agreement.
On Aug. 11, Hinshaw instructed Primate Center staff to stop any further assignments of monkeys from Vilas to invasive research. No such assignments had been made in 1997, but 26 monkeys that had previously been assigned to invasive research are still part of those projects.
Hinshaw says it is important to emphasize that research at the center follows strict federal and university regulations, which all were met. The breach occurred in relation to the local agreement with the zoo.
Parks will perform a number of specific tasks in her review, including:
- Examining the animal-assignment procedure to determine whether additional levels of sign-offs or controls are needed;
- Reviewing current assignments of monkeys from the Vilas colony, and making recommendations about how those monkeys can be reassigned;
- Working with UW–Madison’s other animal-care committees to find whether other local agreements exist that would require special oversight.