US Govt Investing Millions Of Dollars To Breed COVID Test Monkeys
The US government is reportedly investing millions of dollars to breed more COVID test monkeys in the name of biomedical research after a shortage of the animals worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the scientific journal Nature, demand for the non-human primates in the US has skyrocketed as the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued grants to study HIV/AIDS and the coronavirus necessitated the animals’ use in vaccine testing last year.
The publication reported Thursday that the NIH had invested around $29 million over the past two years in primate housing and care in addition to other “infrastructure improvements” at the seven US National Primate Research Centers (NPRCs) and that the agency is expected to spend another $7.5 million by October.
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) FY2022 Budget in Brief includes an additional $30 million to support a 27 percent increase in funding of non-human primate resource infrastructure at the NPRCs and Caribbean Primate Research Center (CPRC).
“These resources will address space and infrastructure capability needs such as animal purchase and transport along with investments to expand housing and support space,” the agency wrote in its request.
According to Nature’s report, around $8 million of recent funding for the NPRCs came from the 2020 CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act.
The NPRCs have more than 22,000 animals including rodents like rats, mice and voles.
Rhesus macaques are the non-human primates most commonly used in NPRC research programs and the centers’ website explains this is due to similar “biological links” between the animals and humans.
Also included in testing are baboons, cynomolgus and pigtail macaques, marmosets and squirrel monkeys.
“Animal species are carefully matched to research studies to ensure valid scientific results that will be applicable to human health,” the site states.
US scientists used 68,257 non-human primates in 2019, according to the Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service “Annual Report Animal Usage by Fiscal Year.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci’s agency, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has been conducting a series of secret experiments that grafted the scalps of aborted fetuses onto living mice and rats.
Almost $400,000 have been spent on these experiments. These studies were meant to investigate the tendency of human skin to develop infections.
Earlier, Judicial , a legal accountability group shared a 600 page report detailing that the US government has been buying and trafficking “fresh” aborted baby body parts.
According to the report these body parts were purchased by the FDA to perform biological experiments such as drug testing and to “humanize” mice.
As reported by GreatGameIndia earlier, it was revealed recently during the Texas Senate Committee hearing that COVID-19 vaccine trials in animals were stopped because they kept dying.
- Source : GreatGameIndia
