Proposed megafacility to breed monkeys in U.S. dismays activists and neighbors but excites scientists

Bainbridge, a rural town in southwestern Georgia with a population of 14,000, could soon become home to 30,000 additional residents: cynomolgus macaques. A new company called Safer Human Medicine (SHM) has announced plans to build an 80-hectare facility that would sell monkeys to universities, contract research organizations, and pharmaceutical companies that perform research on the animals. The breeding facility would dwarf others in the United States and could ease a serious shortage of monkeys for research. But it faces pushback from the local community and concerns from animal welfare groups about the company’s leadership and its goals. SHM, which was founded in 2023 by former executives from major research animal suppliers, first announced its plans at a Bainbridge community meeting in December 2023. The company hopes to break ground this summer and acquire its first animals by the end of the year, although it will be many years before the facility could reach its full capacity. Unlike most other research animal suppliers, SHM doesn’t plan to do any research of its own and will only breed animals. “We had the idea that it would be a really good thing for research if someone could develop a domestic capability making primates available to U.S. researchers,” SHM President David Johst told Science . “We want to be those folks.” The need is real . A 2023 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineerin...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news