OHSU board votes to negotiate with NIH and possibly transform its primate center into an animal sanctuary

The Oregon Well being and Science College board of administrators unanimously handed a decision authorizing negotiations with the Nationwide Institutes of Well being that would finish all experiments on monkeys and shift the federally funded Oregon Nationwide Primate Analysis Middle right into a sanctuary.

The vote got here because the NIH appears to transition a minimum of one in every of seven nationwide primate analysis facilities, that are hosted by universities and analysis facilities, into an animal sanctuary. The company is in search of to maneuver away from animal testing in biomedical analysis in favor of different strategies like laptop fashions and synthetic intelligence.

The facilities have been a flashpoint within the ongoing controversy over animal welfare and the usage of non-human primates in federally funded analysis. Animal rights teams have accused the Oregon middle of violating the federal Animal Welfare Act and urged successive administrations to cut back authorities reliance on animal testing.