Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
became well known because of the work of its director,
Hans Balner, an immunogeneticist. In 1974, it had one of
the largest captive breeding programs for chimpanzees in
the world. Known today as the Biomedical Primate
Research Center, it is one of Europe's largest primate
research centers. Although an independent organization, it
is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture,
and Science. Consistent with European Union policy, it no
longer uses chimpanzees but does have a population of
macaques and marmosets which are used primarily in
research involving infectious and auto-immune diseases.
The German Primate Center was founded in 1977 and is
associated with the Georg-August University of Goettingen
in Lower Saxony, FRG (
Anonymous, 1983
). It is a not-for-
profit research and service organization funded by the
German federal and state governments as well as other
grants and contracts that make up about 40% of its budget.
It is a comprehensive center with a broad, multi-categorical
biological and biomedical research program in neurosci-
ences, reproductive biology, virology, and immunology;
research on retrovirology and AIDS is a particular focus.
The center also sponsors field work in both Madagascar
and Peru on the ecology and behavior of lemurs and
tamarins. It maintains about eight different species and an
animal population of close to 1500 that include captive
breeding programs for both macaques and marmosets. The
center is also home to the European Primate Network
(EUPRIM-Net), which was established in 2006. Eight
European research organizations located in the UK, Swe-
den, The Netherlands, France, and Italy that are involved
with work using nonhuman primates participate in
EUPRIM-net. Its services include providing technical and
professional training in such areas as research use,
management, and husbandry of nonhuman primates,
maintaining a centralized informational database, and
coordinating joint research on pathogen surveillance and
genetic characterization.
In Japan, efforts also began in the 1960s to establish
nonhuman primate research centers. Beginning in 1965,
a program was begun to breed successive generations of
longtailed macaques. The eventual result of these efforts
was the completion in 1978 of the Tsukuba Primate Center
for Medical Sciences (
Honjo, 1985
). By 2002, the center
had a colony of about 1500 nonhuman primates including
a large breeding colony of long-tailed macaques and several
other old world species. With a professional staff of more
than 70 persons, the principal areas of research were in
reproductive physiology, embryology, immunology, micro-
biology, pathology, behavior, and gerontology. In the Ibar-
agi prefecture of Inuyama, the second nonhuman primate
breeding and research center, the Primate Research Institute
of Kyoto University, was founded in 1967. Its purpose was
to conduct biological, behavioral, and sociological research
using monkeys and apes. By 2000, the institute had a staff of
over 100 and nonhuman primate holdings of more than 500
animals and 20 species (Wikipedia and University of
Wisconsin Primate Information Center, Wisconsin NPRC
<
2010).
In India, nonhuman primates were used for many years
in research and testing even though the government banned
their export in 1978. Bhardwaj has provided much of the
following information about nonhuman primate resources
and their use in India (K. R. Bhardwaj, personal commu-
nication, 2010). Nonhuman primates have been used in
such areas as reproductive biology, infectious diseases,
toxicology, and drug development and testing, a particular
example being the testing of candidate antimalarials. In
addition to a significant pharmaceutical industry, the major
research institutions involved have been the Central Drug
Research Institute in Lucknow, the National Institute of
Immunology (NII) in New Delhi, the National Institute of
Virology in Pune, the Indian Institute of Sciences in
Bangalore, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences
in New Delhi, and the National Institute for Research in
Reproductive Health (NIRRH) in Mumbai. Not an atypical
example, the NII in 2007 had a colony of 200 rhesus and
bonnet macaques. Annual use in research and testing has
been about 1000 macaques per year, and, since there has
been no significant breeding resource to meet research
needs, most of the animals used have been wild trapped. In
recent years, as in the PR China (PRC) and elsewhere in
Asia, contract research organizations (CROs) were estab-
lished in India. Six had care and use programs accredited by
the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of
Laboratory Animal Care International (AAALAC), but, as
of 2010, none were using nonhuman primates (
http://primatelit.library.wisc.edu/
>
http://
<
www.aaalac.org/about/index.cfm
2010).
Recognizing that there was an increasing need in
India for supplying higher quality macaques to meet its
biomedical research, drug development, and testing needs,
the Indian Council of Medical Research in 2000 approved
the creation of a National Center for Primate Breeding and
Research to be administered by the NIRRH at Susunavagar
near Mumbai. The project included cooperation with the
NIH for providing technical support and professional
training through its Washington NPRC. A principal mission
of the center was to provide SPF nonhuman primates to
designated institutions. While the professional training was
provided, construction was initially delayed. It was later
reported to be progressing towards completion.
The government of India, as countries elsewhere were
doing, established strict standards for the care and use of
laboratory animals with the Control and Supervision of
Experiments on Animals Act (CPCSEA) in 1995. It
imposed a two-tiered level of review and oversight which
included local institutional review committees as well as
central secondary review for use of larger species such as
nonhuman primates. The review and oversight process,
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