HUNDREDS OF MONKEYS FOR NEW ZEALAND

Grey River Argus, 9 November 1948, Page 4

HUNDREDS OF MONKEYS FOR NEW ZEALAND

To be Used in Research on Poliomyelitis P.A. WELLINGTON, Nov. 8 Monkeys are to be used in New Zealand xor research into poliomyelitis. For the virus research, department of tiie Otago University, tne Health Department nas ordered 100 Rhesus monkeys from India. It is reported from medical sources in Dunedin that the department is already preparing to receive seven Rhesus monkeys from the Wellington zoo, which are expected to arrive witnin a weex One hundred monkeys from India, which will arrive in January, are to be followed by a further shipment or 100 every three months, till all requirements are met. “In the interests .of the welfare of the children, we are co-operating with the research department,” said the Curator of the Wellington Zoo, Mr C. J. Cutler, when this report was referred to him. “The zoo will care for the 100 monkeys ordered from Calcutta, and will keep them to be sent to Dunedin as required. We are expecting to send monkeys from eighteen Rhesus animals which we have in the zoo at present, when the Medical School is ready for them within a week or so.” He said the 100 monkeys ordered for further research would probably arrive in January, but their arrival was dependent upon supplies being readily available. The monkeys could be kept in Dunedin, but facilities were available in Wellington and the zoo staff had years of experience in caring for these animals. “We don’t like loosing our exhibits, but we consider it more important for the children to be safeguarded,” said Mr Cutler. A medical authority associated with the study of poliomyelitis said, tonight, that members of the monkey family were the only animals sufficiently susceptible to the virus of the poliomyelitis group to make their use a practical proposition in experiments. The development of the nervous system of the Rhesus monkey was on parallel lines to that of human beings, and this made them susceptable to a virus which attacked the human nervous system. The use of monkeys in poliomyelitis research was not new. The transmission of virus disease to monkeys had been known for the past thirty years, and a considerable -'amount of research on monkeys was done during the polio epedemic of 1925 in New Zealand. The reason for introducing this form of research in the present attack on polio, he said, was to test suggestions which had been made concerning special features of the epidemic as it had occurred in the Wellington district. The intention was not just to repeat the work of the type already done, but to secure information on the grouping of cases which are obscure and difficult to obtain. The investigation would naturally take some time. He said that research teams at the virus research department of the Otago Medical School had been augmented for the study of polio, and they would be under the general supervision of the Dean of the school, Sir Charles Hercus. Knowledge of the infection and this disease depended on securing a susceptible animal and subjecting it to tests, said the medical authority. This was the standard method.