Cape Town

An attempt to relax the regulations on the international transfer of tissue samples for conservation research was thwarted last week, when the proposal was referred to a working group of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Hairy dilemma: chimpanzee link with origin of HIV may have stimulated calls for change. Credit: ANUP SHAH/BBC NHU

The decision was made at last week's CITES meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. A proposed amendment was opposed by delegates from the United States, Canada, China, and several African and South American countries. The working group will report at the next CITES congress in two or three years time.

The amendment, sponsored by Switzerland, Germany and the United Kingdom, proposed to exempt DNA, blood, hair, feather and other tissues, apart from live gametes and embryos, from permit requirements when sent to laboratories for diagnostic, identification, research or taxonomic purposes.

It would have freed researchers and CITES administrators from having to obtain and process permits for transferring genetic samples of endangered species, and of non-endangered species that are covered by CITES, such as all primates.

But the amendment's strongest supporters host the world's leading pharmaceutical companies, and this is said to have concerned some delegates. There was also speculation that renewed interest in this old CITES issue had been triggered by demand for blood from the African chimpanzee, following findings that it might have harboured the origin of HIV.

The text of the proposed amendment (document 11.45.1 on the conference agenda) can be viewed at http://www.cites.org/.