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Investigators search for cause of death of 42 research
monkeys: What went wrong? An investigation is underway at a UT M. D. Anderson Cancer Center animal breeding facility near Elgin, where 42 rhesus monkeys died of heat stroke due to a thermostat malfunction last week. When temperatures dropped below freezing in Bastrop County Jan. 22, the thermostat system failed to shut off in one of the nine buildings at the center's Department of Veterinary Sciences, a UT System component. Instead of shutting down at 70 degrees Fahrenheit as programmed, the heating system continued to heat the room to 125 degrees. The monkeys were last seen alive during a 1:50 a.m. check by personnel. However, when employees arrived at work last Monday morning, 42 out of 55 monkeys were dead. Staff veterinary pathologists' autopsy reports showed heat stroke was the cause of death. Employees will be offered counseling over the incident, said Michael Keeling, chairman of the Department of Veterinary Sciences. Keeling said a certified installation and start-up of a new heating system took place Jan. 9 and was operating for 13 days before the malfunction. Keeling added that a "fail-safe" mechanism is present in all nine buildings in case a thermostat fails to shut off automatically. "On this particular unit, it failed," Keeling said, adding that M.D. Anderson and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are currently conducting separate investigations. Immediately upon discovering the deceased monkeys, employees began opening doors to ventilate the building. Emergency veterinarians were called to care for the surviving primates. Veterinary staff then notified the USDA, the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare at the National Institutes of Health and the Association for the Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care. Keeling said it is routine for USDA and other regulatory agencies to be called in the case of accidents of this severity. The USDA began its investigation Wednesday to determine the exact malfunction of the system. David Head, regional director for USDA, said the department expects to conclude the investigation within the next few weeks. "It is a priority of ours, and we are treating it as such," Head said. M.D. Anderson officials said the purpose of the investigation is not to assign blame but to ensure that such an accident doesn't happen again. John Mendelsohn, president of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, said that the cancer center is committed to identifying and fixing the malfunction. "Research animals are critical if we are going to continue making significant progress against cancer," he said. "We have a responsibility to provide for the welfare for these animals." Rhesus monkeys are small, brownish-yellow macaques used extensively in research. Will Potter, a journalism junior and member of Students Against Cruelty to Animals, said the use of the monkeys for research is unethical. "Animal research tries to say two things that [monkeys] are so similar to us we should derive valuable research from them, but they're so different that we have no qualms in sacrificing them," Potter said. The Department of Veterinary Sciences operates as a component of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. The facility houses 3,100 animals from 12 species, including monkeys, goats and rodents. There are 115 employees, including veterinarians, animal handlers, researchers and administrators, who care for the animals. |