Animal rights activists have blasted ‘cruel’ use of 115 monkeys in experiments at the Ministry of Defence’s warfare lab as the number tested for Ebola and turberculosis tripled in a year.
Experts at Portdon Down, in Wiltshire, have been testing on marmoset monkeys in a bid to eradicate the deadly diseases.
The research was said to be aimed at understanding the development and spread of Ebola and TB in animals, with later experiments working on possible treatments.
But activists have hit out after a Freedom of Information request revealed that 115 monkeys were used for experiments, compared to the 45 in the previous 12 months.
Experts at Portdon Down, in Wiltshire, have been testing on marmoset monkeys in a bid to eradicate the deadly diseases (file picture)
Experts at Portdon Down, in Wiltshire, have been testing on marmoset monkeys in a bid to eradicate the deadly diseases
Claire Palmer, of the Animal Justice Project, told the Daily Mirror: ‘Shockingly the number of monkeys has almost tripled in a year from 45. Further investigation on the types of primate experiments is a catalogue of cruel, repetitive experiments for infectious diseases.
‘Much current research focuses on attempts to improve available treatments by injecting animals with TB-causing bacteria or forcing them to inhale it – yet we do not appear any closer to eliminating the disease in humans.
‘We are still using the same vaccine that we had in the 1920s, and the same drugs that we had in the 1970s.
‘The monkeys suffered depression, withdrawn behaviour and abnormal respiration – and up to 20% loss in body weight.’
Stocks of Ebola are kept at MoD’s research centre – a highly secretive location where work has long been done on chemical and biological weapons.
Revealing the scale of the Ebola research, officials said in 2014 that all the animals were awake when they were infected with the virus, then ‘humanely culled’ after tests or when their suffering became too severe.
Stocks of Ebola are kept at MoD’s research centre – a highly secretive location where work has long been done on chemical and biological weapons
Official figures at the time showed 200 mice and 56 marmosets were infected with the disease, which caused internal haemorrhaging, and then killed, over two years.
Last year alone, 2,745 animals – including macaque monkeys, pigs, marmosets, rabbits and guinea pigs – were housed in Porton Down.
A spokesman for the MoD said: ‘While we are working to reduce the requirement for animal experimentation, some of this life-saving research cannot be conducted without using animals.’