OT: Resolving cognitive dissonance - a step in the right direction

A vegan lifestyle is surely our best bet for reducing animal pain and suffering. Vegetarianism is perhaps the next best thing. This article explores the confusing relationship that meat-eating humans have with other animals and then suggests one way that our society might become more compassionate


It's time to stop killing meat and start growing it. By William Saletan

can't see straight

The monkeys wearing glasses to improve children's eyesight. The Daily Mail

Pharmaceutical firm reluctant to tout AIDS drugs as possible preventive

NO vaccine that has proven effective in non-human primates has subsequently proven effective in humans.

Pharmaceutical firm reluctant to tout AIDS drugs as possible preventive

TRIM5(alpha)
siglecs
human - nonhuman primate differences in genes for transcription factors and related gene regulation

Non-animal methods advance vaccine research at U. Georgia

UGA study reveals a new way of looking at vaccine development

Survey Reveals Seven Out of 10 Doctors Concerned About Safety of Prescription Medicines; Risk/Benefit Thinking Supports Generics

Maybe if we didn't rely on a model system that failed to predict safety and efficacy at least 92% of the time, we wouldn't be in this mess.

Survey Reveals Seven Out of 10 Doctors Concerned About Safety of Prescription Medicines; Risk/Benefit Thinking Supports Generics

Animal experiments do not prove that drugs are safe. Failed animal experiments don't guarantee that a drug would not be safe for people.

Chimpanzee and human ancestors may have interbred�-�Genetic analysis suggests a messy split between the two lineages.

One more reason that we should extend rights and adequate protections to our fellow great apes:

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060515/full/060515-10.html

Dear Editor:

The latest genomic comparison of humans and chimpanzees has not only given us a new timeline for our close evolutionary relationship, it has provided an unprecedented and unique view of the history of our co-existence. Undoubtedly, this should give us pause to reflect on the present. On one hand, we describe chimpanzees as primate cousins and as a gravely threatened, valuable part of nature. Yet on the other hand, we relegate them to tiny, barren cages and use them like disposable test tubes.

Great ape research has been banned in some nations and is very strictly regulated in many others, but even the discussion of expanded protections is in its infancy here in the U.S.

Given all that we know about chimpanzees, we must also know that how we currently keep and use them in labs is replete with ethical problems. Certainly, to continue experimentation on them given their extraordinary similarity to humans is unconscionable. We must use the new information about the amazing relationship between humans and chimpanzees as motivation to extend protections to chimpanzees and ultimately end experimentation on them and all nonhuman primates.

OT - Shouting monkeys show surprising eloquence. Monkeys string sounds together to create meaning.

A novel combination of calls in the lesser spot-nosed monkey communicates a special meaning distinct from the meaning of its individual components. Fascinating.

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060515/full/060515-11.html

The use of an existing call in a novel context is also interesting. I once observed a female red-bellied lemur drop into the sub-canopy and give an infant collecting call to her family (there was no infant) after hearing the mobbing calls of a nearby bird. (The bird was responding to a circling hawk). The infant-collecting call is rare to begin with and I never heard it given to any other adult any time before or after that one incident. Normally, a "I'm over here. Come find me" type call between adults is a two-syllable sneeze-type call.

OT - WHO quashes requests for continued secrecy in drug trials�-�Early stages of testing should be made public, say public-health experts.

If we cataloged and analyzed data from pre-clinical animal experiments, we might better understand 1) the inefficency and poor predictive value of animal tests, and 2) the risks that participants in early stage trials face.

http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060515/full/060515-16.html

OT: Human and chimp genomes reveal new twist on origin of species

Well go figure.

New study published in Nature reveals that early humans and chimpanzees were interbreeding for millions of years. And, the X chromosome changed very late in the game.

This has to be the most interesting thing about human evolution that I have read in a long time!

Human and chimp genomes reveal new twist on origin of species

Studies unclear whether spinal cement procedure improves back pain

Back in January I wrote about an experiment where female baboons had several vertebrae destroyed and then filled with commercially available bone cement compounds.

In 2002 and again in 2004, the FDA issued warnings about serious complications related to the use of bone cements as treatment for spinal compression fractures .

Last week, a meta-analysis revealed that the use of bone cements doesn't appear to have any significant positive effect for reducing pain in human patients with compression fractures caused by osteoporosis or certain types of tumors. (Note that the monkeys used in the earlier experiment did not have either condition, but that their vertebrae were surgically destroyed.) I fear that these new results will give rise to more monkey experiments.

-Monkeys are caged their whole lives and have extremely limited opportunities for any movement at all, let alone exercise. This undoubtedly has effects for bone and joint status.
-Monkeys are not bipedal and thus locomotion and orientation of the spine (pressure, torque) are different both when stationary and in motion.
-Monkey biomechanics and anatomy differ significantly from humans.

The eyes have it: Part II

Recently, I mentioned some vision experiments that I dubbed "Life through a keyhole," and "The eyes have it: Part 1." Here is another example of a vision experiment performed on monkeys.

Citation: L Kiorpes, C Tang, and JA Movshon (2006) Sensitivity to visual motion in amblyopic macaque monkeys. Vis Neurosci 23(2): 247-56.

Summary of experiment: Nine young male rhesus macaques were used in the experiment. In addition, data from nine others used in an earlier study served as normal controls. For four of the experimental monkeys, a “lazy eye” was induced surgically at ~4 weeks of age. Judging from the detail in the methods section, surgery was performed under ketamine sedation rather than anesthesia and no analgesia was mentioned. The other five monkeys were raised wearing a single defocus lens beginning from ~4 weeks of age and ending before 8 months of age. Operant conditioning for visual tasks was used to measure the perception of motion ranging from very small to larger movements. Tests were done for motion at different speeds, visual distances and levels of contrast. General vision tests (like the ones humans get for glasses) were also performed.

Results: Under some conditions the lazy eye performed better than the “fellow” eye and under other conditions worse. In some cases, performance was roughly equal.

My notes:

• The first author has been publishing articles on monkey vision since at least 1984.


• Many of the papers cited in this article pertain to “lazy eye” and vision in humans. Why bother with a model?


• They mention providing visual and tactile enrichment for the monkeys who they are blinding. Infants and blind animals satisfy the requirements for special consideration under Section 3.81 of the AWA regarding psychological well-being.



• Infants were "obtained" from WaNPRC and hand-reared in the NYU visual neuroscience laboratory.


• Approved by UAWC and conformed to “the Guide.”


• Given the many test conditions in this experiment, and changes that take place as the animal ages and becomes more experienced (with the testing), the lack of independence between each eye in a pair belonging to a single monkey, the statistical analysis is suspect.

Affiliations: New York University Center for Neural Science

Funding Acknowledged: National Eye Institutes EY05864 and EY02017. Additional support was provided by an investigatorship from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Also acknowledged RR00166 to the Washington National Primate Research Center.