6 
on primates per se , including studies on methods of procurement, transpor- 
tation, housing, breeding, maintenance, disease and, in general, animal 
husbandry of primates. Other research includes: studies on cancer, infec- 
tious diseases, diabetes, and drug toxicity. Other activities include: 
dissemination of information, materials, and animals for special research 
purposes to qualified investigators in other institutions, including the 
regional primate research centers; contribution of materials to a registry 
of comparative pathology to be a part of the American Registry of Pathology 
at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, D.C.; and establishment 
of a primate biologLcal storage and retrieval program as a central information 
function. This center provides a facility for a large number of special 
studies supported by research grants from most of the NIH institutes and from 
some other agencies. 
In July 1962, administration of the Regional Primate Research Centers Program 
was transferred to the Animal Resources Branch of the newly formed Division 
of Research facilities and Resources. The DRG abolished its Primate Research 
Study Section in 1964, and DRFR established an initial application review 
group, the "Primate Research Centers Advisory Committee." The program is now 
administered entirely by DRFR's Animal Resources Branch. 
The efforts that led to the creation and development of the primate centers 
program were filled with truly cooperative participation of persons involved 
but with often strongly divergent and conflicting concepts. Details will be 
presented in the following portions of this report, which also will delineate 
some of the problems and principles that emerged. 
Chapter I. EARLY INDICATIONS OF CONCERN 
In 1947 and in 1949, concern at NIH about the lack of subhuman primates for 
research in the United States resulted in an attempt by the Division of 
Research Grants (DRG[)i- to establish and finance a program for the "procurement 
of chimpanzees for medical research, to make available to all research workers 
in this country an adequate supply of chimpanzees— ( " Prior to and during 
1953 and 1954, the NIH Committee on Radiation Studies held three conferences 
on the effects of radiation on animals, including monkeys; in 1955, it held 
a conference on "The Use of Primates for Studies of Radiation Effects and 
Aging."(2)In 1953 and 1954, a subcommittee^' developed a proposal for a 
_1/ Unsuccessful. 
2/ Letter of July 24, 1947, Vander (DRG) to Nissen (Yerkes Laboratories); 
memorandum of August 16, 1949, Culbertson (DRG) to Topping (NIH). (J.) 
_3/ See (_3) for minutes of meeting of "Subcommittee of the Committee on 
Radiation Studies on Long-Term Primate Program." Dr. Howard Curtis was 
chairman of this subcommittee. 
