The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is being ordered to end research problems using monkeys, according to a recent exclusive report published by Science.
The directive, communicated to CDC staff by a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employee and recent college graduate who is now a top official at the agency, will end studies on approximately 200 macaques. The fate of the animals—largely used in work on HIV prevention—is unclear; some may be transferred to primate sanctuaries, others may be euthanized.Apart from the retirement of research chimpanzees initiated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) a decade ago, the move would mark the first time a U.S. agency has ended its in-house nonhuman primate program. “It’s unprecedented,” says Sally Thompson-Iritani, the assistant vice provost responsible for the University of Washington’s animal care program.Since President Donald Trump took office in January, the heads of several U.S. research agencies—including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Environmental Protection Agency, and NIH—have announced plans to reduce their reliance on animal studies. Instead, the agencies aim to invest more in organ chips and other “new approach methodologies.”
This directive aligns with a broader push across federal health agencies to scale back animal-based experiments since President Donald Trump returned to office in January. Instead of relying on nonhuman primates or other lab animals, these agencies are shifting funding toward advanced chip-based systems and human cell–derived models.
Science is reporting that the directive is being issued at the behest of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and while some scientists are complaining about the directive (especially regarding studies related to HIV), others say it will have a limited impact on current research.
“I’m concerned that the research being done at the CDC will just be completely halted, even if the animals are in the middle of a study. That means we lost a lot of research knowledge,” [JoAnne Flynn,chair of the department of microbiology and molecular genetics at the University of Pittsburgh] says.Even so, another primate researcher points out that “the studies at the CDC represent only a very small proportion of ongoing research studies in the U.S. at [National Institutes of Health–funded] research centers and universities,” says Nancy L. Haigwood, a professor and former director of the Oregon National Primate Research Center at Oregon Health & Science University. “These other studies will continue because they have been peer-reviewed to justify the experiments, meaning that the experiment can only be performed in nonhuman primates and not in the lab or other models.”
The order affects about 200 animals currently at CDC facilities, which will have to be either rehomed or euthanized.
I don’t normally cite People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in my analysis. However, I would like to acknowledge that it is correct in one point — if 40 years of monkey research has resulted in a vaccine against the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the discovery is unlikely to happen.
The organization is now thanking…the administration of President Donald Trump.
PETA is thanking the administration for taking this decisive, visionary step and acknowledging what mountains of evidence have made clear: Experiments on monkeys aren’t delivering for humans, nowhere more obvious than the four-decade failure to produce a marketable HIV vaccine. Today, we’re celebrating a historic turning point—one that protects public health, respects endangered species, and helps propel research into a modern, animal-free future.
Interestingly, the most recent development related to HIV research occurred this September, when U.S. officials announced investment in the new HIV prevention drug called lenacapavir. The State Department indicates the goal is to make the product available to over 2 million people by 2028 and focus on transmissions from mother to child.
Clinical trial results for the drug, lenacapavir, showed last year that twice-yearly injections can provide almost complete protection against contracting HIV for individuals at risk in their intimate relationships and for preventing mother-to-child transmission. The medication is also used to treat HIV. The original discoveries that made this medicine possible were funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).Scientists believe that the drug could help end the HIV epidemic. “It’s really the only way to bring this epidemic under control,” says Dr. Linda-Gail Bekker, director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre in the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine at the University of Cape Town. “We have 31 million people on treatment around the world, but if we don’t address protecting people who are susceptible to acquire HIV, we aren’t going to bring the epidemic under control.”
In conclusion: The time certainly has come for a review of how science is funded and whether the money is being used wisely… or simply to prop up areas of research that are clearly no longer promising. It appears the first steps in doing so are being taken.
Image by perplexity.ai.
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