A group of chimpanzees once used in laboratory hepatitis B vaccine experiments has received health checks at their new home in Liberia, in hopes of giving them a second chance at a normal life.<\/p>\n
\nThe West African chimpanzees received checks ranging from teeth cleaning to X-rays and pedicures at the Humane World for Animals\u2019 Second Chance Chimpanzee Refuge in central Liberia, Liliana Pacheco Ricote, director of the sanctuary, told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
\nMore than 400 of the chimpanzees had been used by American researchers in Liberia in the hepatitis B vaccine experiments from the 1970s until the early 2000s, Ricote said, many of them captured in the wild as infants.<\/p>\n
\nLiberia has the second-highest number of chimpanzees in West Africa, after Guinea. The West African chimpanzees are classified as a critically endangered species because of their rapidly declining numbers.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThey were used in very invasive research … (and) went through a lot of experiments and pain,\u201d Ricote said.<\/p>\n
\nHumane World for Animals said that in 2015, it assumed permanent responsibility for 60 of the chimpanzees that were remaining at the end of the research program. The chimps now mostly live at the sanctuary on a series of mangrove forest-covered islands.<\/p>\n
\nThe checks carried out under anesthetic gave the chimpanzees head-to-toe exams to assess their long-term health, detect any early signs of disease and tailor care plans as they age, Humane World for Animals said in a statement to the AP.<\/p>\n
\nThe tests included dental examinations, the heart, lungs, and nervous system, as well as blood tests. They get booster vaccinations and fingernail trims, it said, adding that plans are in place to carry out the checks on the remaining ones.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe health checks are a vital part of caring for these chimpanzees who have been through so much,\u201d said Belen Perez Hernando, the sanctuary\u2019s veterinarian.<\/p>\n
\nThe chimpanzees\u2019 experiences in the labs illustrate the broader risks animals face, according to Dr. Mark Ofua, a veterinarian and West Africa representative for the Wild Africa conservation group. \u201cAnimals used in research are rarely the intended beneficiaries, suffering confinement, social disruption, and lasting psychological and physical harm,” he said.<\/p>\n
\nOfua called for strict regulations on animals used for experimental research, adding that reviews have found most chimpanzee experiments \u201cmade no significant contribution to developing treatments for human diseases.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe extent of the experiments\u2019 impact on the West African chimps, whose average age is 30 to 35, is unclear, as findings from the assessments are yet to be concluded. However, \u201cfor those who were under experiments, you could still feel the hurt and the pain that they went through,\u201d Ricote said.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cSeeing how much they hurt about what we\u2019ve done, it gives me a lot of pleasure … to give them this second chance to live with dignity the life that they deserve,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of chimpanzees once used in laboratory hepatitis B vaccine experiments has received health checks at their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60],"class_list":["post-616197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}