(Image Source: Inquisitr)

BY ORKIDE IZCI

ANCHOR ERICA COGHILL

Animal rights activists are celebrating a National Institutes of Health move Thursday.

Chimpanzees will be used for research only if there is no other option. The U.S. government has adopted new limits on chimp research.  

The move, according to the Associated Press, puts U.S. research policy “more in line with the rest of the world.” The NIH made the decision after report published by Institute of Medicine which says...

“For many years, experiments using chimpanzees have been instrumental in advancing scientific knowledge and have led to new medicines to prevent life-threatening and debilitating diseases. However, recent advances in alternate research tools have rendered chimpanzees largely unnecessary as research subjects.”

Another reason cited for the new limits is because the chimpanzees are the most similar animals to humans. In fact, the NIH director says chimps deserve “special consideration and respect.” National Journal explains...

“Chimpanzees share more than 98 percent of their DNA with humans, live 50 years and longer, form close-knit family groups, and can use language. Yet their immune systems differ in important ways -- they don't get sick from the AIDS virus, for instance...”


Experiments on chimps can be expensive, and the Humane Society of The United States says the move could save researchers a lot of money.

“The federal government spends $30 million per year to maintain and use 1,000 chimpanzees in laboratories... Given the results of this report and mounting federal debt, the expense of maintaining chimpanzees in laboratories can no longer be justified.”

According to the Associated Press animal rights groups are asking Congress to end chimp research altogether.