Reprieve for gorillas

Press, 16 November 1981, Page 20

Reprieve for gorillas

Conservationists and scientists from 10 countries, meeting in Geneva, have asked for restrictions on using monkeys and other primates in medical research.

The experts, meeting at the World Health Organisation (W.H.0.), said primates were indispensable for research, but their use should be kept to a minimum, N.Z.P.A.-Reuter reports.

Conservation measures were essential for primates to continue living in their natural habitats, now widely threatened by human population growth and economic development, they said at the end of the four-day informal talks.

Monkeys are used to test drugs and have played a major role in research concerned with tuberculosis, . measles, malaria and dengue fever. Conservationists have expressed alarm at the rapid depletion of certain species and some medical laboratories have set up their own breeding centres. The meeting agreed that none of ..the 76. .species identified as. endangered or rare by

the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (1.U.C.N.) should be taken for biomedical research, officials

said. The list, ranging from lemurs to the gorilla, excludes the rhesus monkey, which is often used in experiments.