An experiment conducted on 110 chimpanzees at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Bastrop, Texas examined the effects of sodium on blood pressure in an attempt to translate results to humans. The HSUS says that this 2007 study on chimps was unnecessary and frivolous.
"The use of chimpanzees for yet another study on salt was simply unwarranted. The amount of evidence that salt affects blood pressure in humans is vast and has even been cited by the salt industry itself," says Kathleen Conlee, director of program management for animal research issues at The HSUS.
"The American Heart Association's website — which oversees the very journal that printed this study, along with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, all say that to lower blood pressure, people should consume less salt. There was absolutely no scientific need for these animals to undergo this experiment," Conlee explains.
As part of the study, from which results were published in the Oct. 2007 issue of the journal Circulation, chimpanzees were fed varying levels of sodium over two years and were knocked down with anesthetics at least twice a year for blood pressure measurements. A similar experiment published in 1995 already showed that increasing salt in a chimpanzee's diet causes their blood pressure to rise.
The authors allege that the study was a single-variable experiment "uncomplicated by lifestyle exposures, such as diet change" and that the results could provide information related to humans. However, laboratories, as well as the procedures used in these studies, impose a number of stressors and variables, not to mention that chimpanzees differ from humans in a number of important ways.
"There should not be valuable funds wasted on research involving endangered species to tell us something we all already know," says Conlee. "The 1,200 chimpanzees remaining in laboratories, some of who have been there for more than 50 years should be provided with permanent sanctuary and spared from this and other experimentation."
Facts
- M.D. Anderson Cancer Center currently houses approximately 110 chimpanzees. The age range of the chimpanzees is 5 to 45 years old.
- Of the estimated 1,200 chimpanzees in nine U.S. laboratories, approximately half are government owned or supported.
- The government spends an estimated $20 – 25 million per year on research and care of chimps in labs, of which M.D. Anderson receives approximately $3 to 4 million. The lifetime care of one chimpanzee is $300,000 – $500,000.
The HSUS seeks to end the use of chimpanzees in invasive biomedical research and testing and to retire chimpanzees currently in laboratories to permanent and appropriate sanctuaries by: gaining support from policymakers, the public, and the scientific community; scientifically challenging arguments advocating harmful chimpanzee research; educating about the plight of chimpanzees in laboratories; and preventing breeding of additional chimps into research. The hope is that the U.S. will join countries like Australia, Austria, Great Britain, New Zealand, Sweden and the Netherlands, that prohibit or severely restrict invasive research on great apes. Visit http://www.humanesociety.org/chimps.
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