News at a glance: Monkey shipments, a controversial visa, and support for geoengineering research

ANIMAL RESEARCH Lab pauses monkey imports Charles River Laboratories, one of the largest U.S. importers and suppliers of research monkeys, announced last week it is suspending shipments from Cambodia after receiving a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice. In November 2022, the agency indicted members of a smuggling ring that was illegally exporting cynomolgus macaques caught in the wild in Cambodia, labeling them as captive-bred. Charles River said the subpoena is related to several shipments it received from its Cambodian supplier. Charles River said the suspension was voluntary and motivated by “ongoing investigations” of the “supply chain” from Cambodia. The United States is by far the largest importer of the animals globally, mostly for research by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Cynomolgus macaques, which are endangered, accounted for 96% of the nearly 33,000 nonhuman primates the country imported in 2022, according to U.S. government data. About two-thirds of the cynomolgus animals came from Cambodia. POLICY U.K.-EU deal opens door to science funds Researchers in the United Kingdom breathed a cautious sigh of relief this week after the government struck a deal with the European Union to fix post-Brexit disputes including trade across Northern Ireland’s border. The tentative pact, called the Windsor Framework, does not explicitly involve science. But it could end a 2-year delay in fin...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news