New US legislation Aims to Phase Out Invasive Research on Great Apes

US Senate Environment and Public Works Committee recently approved the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act (S. 810) and urged its passage in the full US Senate. Since Chimpanzees are the only great apes currently used in invasive research in the US, the new legislation will phase out such research on chimpanzees, end breeding of chimpanzees for invasive research purposes, and retire the 500 government-owned chimpanzees to sanctuary, saving approximately USD 25 million per year.

However, according to the act, the term Great Ape refers to Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), Bonobos (P. paniscus), Gorillas (Gorilla gorilla or G. beringei), Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus or Pongo abelii), and Gibbons (Hylobatidae).

The bill was introduced by US Senators Maria Cantwell, Democrat-Washington, Susan Collins, Republican-Maine, and Bernard Sanders, Independent-Vermont.

S. 810 passed the committee by voice vote with the inclusion of an amendment that allows for invasive research on great apes in the event that a new, emerging, or reemerging disease requires their use. Approval for research will involve a transparent process that closely tracks the recommendations of a recent Institute of Medicine of the [US] National Academies (IOM; Washington DC, USA) report that concluded chimpanzees are largely unnecessary for current biomedical research.

The Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act was introduced in April 2011. A recent report by the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council could not identify any area of current biomedical research for which chimpanzee use is necessary. Moreover, the report pointed to several available alternatives to chimpanzee use and called for increased support for the development of more alternative research methods. Prior to the IOM report, approximately 80%-90% of chimpanzees in laboratories were not being used and instead are warehoused in laboratories at a high cost to US taxpayers. Sanctuaries can provide higher standards of care at a lower cost to taxpayers.

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