Secret plan to breed monkeys for Porton Down research

A primate breeding centre to give scientists access to live monkeys for experiments is to be established at the taxpayer's expense at the military research centre Porton Down in Wiltshire, The Independent has learned.

The centre, where macaque monkeys will be bred for experimentation, will be set up by the Medical Research Council (MRC), a government agency, despite vocal opposition. The move has angered animals rights activists who want to hold the Government to its promise not to increase the level of testing on animals.

Government sources say that ministers are seeking to "guarantee" a supply of monkeys for experimental purposes and that they "refuse to be put off" by the outcry over an application by Cambridge University to build a £24m primate brain research centre or by long-running protests against research by Huntingdon Life Sciences. The Porton Down centre, which will open next summer, will be housed in the high-security Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, where medical counter measures for biological agents are developed. The monkeys are expected to be used by research teams at the centre and around the country.

Last night, anti-vivisection organisations questioned whether the monkeys at Porton Down would be used in experiments concerning chemical and biological warfare tests to help develop vaccines in response to the 11 September terrorist attacks. They accused the Government of reneging on a promise before the 1997 election to reduce the number of live animals used in experiments.

The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) said the establishment of a breeding centre dedicated to supplying monkeys to scientists would increase their use and set back plans to find alternatives. Sarah Kite, of the union, said: "This new government-supported secret monkey farm will simply increase the already controversial use of primates in research. This is an outrageous betrayal of the British people who were led to believe that this Government had a commitment to reduce animal experiments.

"The opening of this primate breeding farm in the UK will inevitably result in a surplus of lab monkeys who will then be touted around universities like left-over stock."

The MRC, which funds research into treatments for diseases including Alzheimer's, said the animals would be treated humanely and would not be lent to commercial companies for experiments.

A spokesman said: "It's a facility for the care and housing of monkeys. They are opening it in the second quarter of next year. They are macaques. They are going to be used for academic medical research. It is not for industrial or commercial use. The facility will operate to the best possible standards in academic research."

Macaques are favoured by scientists for experimentation because of their genetic likeness to humans. They are already used for brain experiments in the UK.

One MRC-funded piece of research into the roles of transmitter chemicals in the brain involved sawing off the top of a monkey's skull, injecting toxins in to the brain, or removing an area of it – usually by suction – and then refitting the top of the skull over the damaged brain.

Scientists developing treatments for disorders including Parkinson's, schizophrenia and autism believe there is no alternative to experimenting on monkeys. Some have threatened to move their research abroad if they are denied access to tests on primates.

But critics believe that many monkeys are used unnecessarily where alternatives are available and have called for a tightening of the regulations. MEPs voted recently to ban the use of wild primates and to review the use of all monkeys in experiments. It is not known if macaques for the laboratory will be wild or bred from existing captive populations.