Washington

The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has taken over responsibility for 288 chimpanzees infected with HIV and hepatitis C as a result of research projects. The chimps are currently housed at the Coulston Foundation in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

Coulston, a private research laboratory, has been criticized by animal-rights groups for the conditions under which its animals are kept, and has been chastised by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). But it is still in the running to bid for contracts to care for the animals.

Coulston: his lab can still bid for contracts. Credit: AP

Coulston, which was founded by Frederick Coulston, lost two such contracts last year after USDA investigations ruled that the facility had violated the Animal Welfare Act. USDA inspectors reported that Coulston's chimp housing was dirty, infested and poorly ventilated. According to the department, these conditions contributed to the deaths of three chimps.

The loss of the contracts — worth $10 million over six years — put the Coulston lab in financial trouble and cast doubts over its future (see Nature 398, 644; 1999). Its financial situation “has become very critical”, says John Strandberg, NIH director of comparative medicine.

But a successful bid by Coulston could help keep the organization solvent. Bids will begin in June and will undergo peer review. Don McKinney, a spokesman for Coulston, declines to comment on whether it will bid for the contract. However, he says he is “enthused” that NIH is supporting care of the animals.

Most of the 288 chimps, which represent about half of Coulston's total chimp population, are housed at Alamogordo's Holloman Air Force Base, leased by Coulston. Of the 288, 25 remain in active clinical trials. The foundation will still own around 300 other chimps.

Strandberg says Coulston deserves to bid for the chimps' care, since conditions there have improved. “They have been intensively monitored,” Strandberg says. “They've responded to many of the issues.”

The California group In Defense of Animals, which opposes animal research, disagrees. It wants the permanent retirement of all chimpanzees used in government-sponsored research and opposes any involvement in their care by Coulston. “The NIH's deal does not accomplish either of these pressing goals,” says Elliot Katz, the group's president.