As previously noted, laboratory chimps have been classified as an endangered species by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, as reported by Nature:
The new rule will bar most invasive research on chimpanzees. Exceptions will be granted for work that would “benefit the species in the wild” or aid the chimpanzee’s propagation or survival, including work to improve chimp habitat and the management of wild populations.
Now Deborah MacKenzie at NewScientist (5 September 2015, paywall) reports that the new rule, in combination with laboratory fears of bad publicity, may hurt … wild chimps:
AN ANIMAL welfare victory in the US may prove to be a conservation catastrophe in Africa. Tests of a promising oral Ebola vaccine that could protect wild apes may be abandoned this month when a ban on the use of chimpanzees in biomedical research comes into force.
An outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus has swept across west Africa over the past 17 months, killing more than 11,000 people. Humans are not the only great apes at risk. The virus has killed chimps elsewhere in Africa, and, according to estimates by Peter Walsh at the University of Cambridge, the virus has wiped out a third of the world’s gorillas, leaving the western lowland gorilla critically endangered.
The animals require different vaccines than humans, and more testing as access to chimps is always limited. She reports that testing on the wild populations is possible – but very, very difficult. Up until now, captive chimps have been used, but the era of relatively free testing is coming to an end:
Research that benefits chimps will still be permitted. Walsh’s vaccine research meets that criteria, but there is unlikely to be anywhere to carry it out. None of the labs currently housing chimps for research has applied for a permit. Walsh thinks they fear that the negative publicity will jeopardise other, more extensive work with monkeys.
And so the exceedingly difficult problem of politics may doom the wild chimp population. Do we chase this problem or that problem? Which will revolt the public more?” Rather than, “Which is more important?”
It would be interesting to put the onus on the conservation campaigners. “Which project do you think is most important, and why?” The ruckus would be both entertaining and instructive. MacKenzie finishes with:
… Walsh thinks it will require captive chimps. “Disease is now a major threat to the survival of our closest relatives,” says Walsh. “It is immoral not to intervene if possible.” It is ironic that liberating chimps from labs could make that harder.
