Animal Testing On Non-human Primates - Species and Numbers Used

Species and Numbers Used

Most of the NHPs used are one of three species of macaques, accounting for 79% of all primates used in research in the UK, and 63% of all federally funded research grants for projects using primates in the U.S. Lesser numbers of marmosets, tamarins, spider monkeys, owl monkeys, vervet monkeys, squirrel monkeys, and baboons are used in the UK and the U.S. Licenses approving the use of great apes, such as gorillas, chimpanzees, and orangutans, are not currently being issued in Britain, though their use has not been outlawed, but chimpanzees are used in the U.S., with 1,133 in research laboratories as of October 2006.

In the United States, nearly 55,000 NHPs were used in 2004, an annual figure that has held steady since 1973, and 10,000 in the European Union in 2002. Just over 4,000 were used in the UK in 2004.

In 1996, the British Animal Procedures Committee recommended new measures for dealing with NHPs. The use of wild-caught primates was banned, except where "exceptional and specific justification can be established"; specific justification must be made for the use of old world primates (but not for the use of new world primates); approval for the acquisition of primates from overseas is conditional upon their breeding or supply center being acceptable to the Home Office; and each batch of primates acquired from overseas must be separately authorized.