Experts across Canada are calling on the federal government to ban the importing of primates for biomedical testing.
An open letter addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault, and Premier of Québec François Legault, signed by 80 different researchers including environmentalist David Suzuki, is calling on Canada to ban the importing of primates to be used for medical testing.
The letter, dated Nov. 7, outlines how researchers stopped using chimpanzees, human’s closest primate relative, for experiments ten years ago, as it could no longer be justified scientifically, ethically, or financially. However, they say that despite the creation of various testing methodologies, another primate is being increasingly used for biomedical experimentation by the pharmaceutical industry: the long-tailed macaque.
Researchers say that this small primate is highly social and intelligent, and has many of the same advanced behaviours and cognitive abilities as the chimpanzee.
“Over the past three decades, more than half a million long-tailed macaques have been shipped to North America, endangering the survival of their wild populations and increasing the risk of spreading zoonotic pathogens to humans,” the letter reads, adding that due to decreases and threats to the population the primates were designated as endangered in 2022.
The same year, multiple Cambodian officials were indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for illegally exporting long-tailed macaques to the United States. Following this, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reportedly cracked down on pharmaceutical company Charles River Laboratories (CRL), barring the company from using or selling several shipments of macaques from Cambodia.
Following this, the company began importing monkeys of Cambodian origin to Montréal, Quebec in 2023, according to the letter. The number of monkeys imported into Canada from Cambodia surged at the same time, seeing a 500 per cent increase between 2022 and 2023, the Canadian Press reports.
“With the help of unscrupulous Canadian-based consultants, the company imported over 8,000 long-tailed macaques from Cambodia in the past 19 months, suggesting a long-term strategy to move their operations to Quebec to circumvent U.S. regulations,” the open letter reads.
Researchers say that on August 10, 2024, a cargo plane carrying 680 long-tailed macaques from Cambodia, operated by SkyTaxi and chartered by CRL, landed at Montréal-Mirabel International Airport, even though the Canadian Transportation Agency refused to grant them a landing permit.
“This was the third SkyTaxi flight chartered by Charles River carrying long-tailed macaques to arrive in Canada since April 2024, without authorization from the Canadian Transportation Agency,” the letter reads. “We are concerned that Canadian authorities have not investigated whether these violations could result in action under the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act.”
NO CANADIAN LAWS BROKEN
CRL imported 6,769 long-tailed macaques into the country between January 2023 and August of this year, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) confirmed to the Canadian Press.
The department said that it rigorously inspects all imported animals, including those handled by CRL, according to reports. ECCC says that this year, all imports have lined up with Canadian and international wildlife rules and regulations.
Both CRL and the federal government say that no Canadian laws have been broken, the Canadian Press reports.
The open letter was drafted by Michael Schillaci, a professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto, Scarborough.
“What prompted our letter was a concern that Canada was becoming the preferred destination for importing monkeys for the purpose of medical experimentation and testing,” Schillaci told Now Toronto on Thursday, saying he doubts the validity of the permits being presented to Canadian officials.
He shared that among their concerns, researchers are worried that these animals are being caught from the wild and shipped to Canada for the purpose of testing as opposed to being bred for this purpose.
“The reason for this is because the market for monkeys for laboratory research has increased over the years, and captive bred facilities are limited in their ability to breed monkeys fast enough,” Schillaci explained. “So, in order to meet market demand, the allegations are that Cambodia engaged in some sort of fraud to capture wild monkeys and then transport them.”
He says that officials did not label the monkeys as wild caught, instead saying they were bred in captivity.
“There’s a lot of money associated with these monkeys, and monkeys that are captive bred are going to be worth more than wild monkeys,” the researcher explained, adding that this is because monkeys bred in captivity are tested periodically for infections and pathogens.
“They’re thought to be relatively clean monkeys, and this is important for health and safety of the people, but it’s also important for the medical experiments that are being conducted on these monkeys.”
He gave the example of vaccine testing.
“If a company is interested in developing a vaccine for a retrovirus, they want to make sure that the monkeys that they’re testing either with the vaccine or, let’s say, a placebo, are not infected with some other retrovirus that might confound the study.”
“We didn’t want Canada to become a kind of safe haven for companies that are transporting monkeys that might be wild caught,” Schillaci said.
RESEARCHERS RAISE CONCERNS ABOUT HEALTH RISKS FOR HUMANS
Researchers say that while the endangerment and disappearance of the primates from their natural habitats is concerning, they are worried about the risk of transmission of zoonotic pathogens, which are diseases that animals can transmit to humans.
“The trade in certain macaque species has a high zoonotic potential,” the letter reads. “In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, we urge extreme caution regarding human exposure to zoonotic pathogens linked to the international wildlife trade.”
Schillaci says that an example of this is HIV.
“HIV is of primate origin. That comes from a virus called Simian Immunodeficiency Virus, so, SIV, and that was unknown when… the original [HIV] outbreaks occurred.”
The researcher explained that several animals present the risk of transmitting diseases to humans, including bats and monkeys.
This is not the first time people have called on the Canadian government to ban the shipment of the primates.
Three members of parliament, Alexandre Boulerice, Laurel Collins, and Matthew Green, wrote a letter to federal ministers on Oct. 24, calling for them to address the illegal importation of long-tailed macaques into Canada.
Meanwhile in August, the Animal Alliance of Canada called on the environment minister to immediately suspend monkey imports from Cambodia.
ANIMAL TESTING IN CANADA
Canada banned the use of animals for cosmetic testing in 2023, but pharmaceutical testing is still permitted.
The Canadian government recently hosted a consultation on its draft strategy to “replace, reduce or refine the use of vertebrate animals for the purposes of assessing chemicals under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999,” looking for input on the draft from various groups, including academic researchers, health professionals, and Indigenous partners.
Schillaci said that this is a good development, but they are calling for more immediate action.
“Just [on] Nov. 8, another shipment of monkeys landed at Mirabel in Montréal, over 600 monkeys,” the researcher concluded.
