Because it is not only France: macaques from the island of Mauritius in the hands of European and American research
Mauritian breeding farms send primates to laboratories worldwide for cruel tests to serve the market.
The trade of Mauritian macaques is not limited to France. All throughout the globe, laboratories import these animals, whether captured or bred in captivity, with the aim of subjecting them to painful and stressful tests. We have found traces of the shocking fate reserved for some of them among our neighbours and across the pond. We are asking for the closure of these primate breeding farms and an end to their use in testing.
The global establishment of these macaque sellers leaves no doubt. In the United States, the BioCulture group has its own importer, ‘BC US LLC’. In Europe, the point of contact for its counterpart, Noveprim, is the Spanish centre, Camarney… Trafficking that is facilitated by airline companies such as Hainan Airlines and EgyptAir, despite the commendable decision by Air France to stop taking part in this from June 2023.
Tests serving the market
Here like elsewhere, the individuals imported from the hold are regularly exploited for toxicology tests. With results rarely needing to be published (they mainly interest the bodies in charge of approving new products being put on the market), few scientific articles can be found that report the suffering that they are involved in.
A few traces of these experiments can still be found that generally involve administering a substance to monkeys, whether by making them drink it(1) or injecting them with it(2). Most often, repeated administrations are given for months(3) in order to measure the secondary painful and stressful effects, predicted or not, ‘at a repeated dose’. Be that as it may, the issue is still the same: slaughtering in the more or less short term, then organ sampling and analysis.
Contractual research organisations
The promoters of a product can appoint these regulatory procedures to ‘contractual research organisations’ (CROs) such as Covance in England, Aptuit in Italy, or Charles River in France and North America.
If these names do not mean anything to you, you might, however, know of, on the other side of the Rhine, the Laboratoire de Pharmacologie et de Toxicologie (LPT [Pharmacology and Toxicology Laboratory], which has now become ‘Provivo Biosciences’). Shocking footage was revealed in 2019 by Cruelty Free International, our British partner within the Cruelty Free Europe European Coalition for which One Voice is the French representative. Or even Vivotecnia, a Spanish CRO authorised to carry out operations despite evident mistreatment brought to light in 2020 by this same partner.
They are not goods
In aid of these types of clients, Noveprim can even test on site, in Mauritius, in order to produce macaques already equipped with biological parameter implants(4). Suffering that is contributed to by the deplorable conditions they are kept in and their treatment – and an additional product in the company’s catalogue.
Animals’ lives do not belong to us. We have to put an end to laboratories exploiting monkeys and for this, develop innovative and ethical research methods. You can sign the petition by One Voice to ask for the closure of these Mauritian breeding farms and a ban on testing on primates along with us.
Going further, you can consult our special report and consult the data given year after year and species by species on our dedicated website.
- Accelera (Italy) 2023.
- Novo Nordisk (Denmark) 2019.
- Novo Nordisk (Denmark) 2022, Labcorp (United States) & Charles River (Canada) 2023.
- Noveprim (Maurice) 2018.
Translated from the French by Joely Justice