CHAPTER I 
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 
A severe and long-term shortage of nonhuman primates 
threatens the continuation of many essential health 
activities. This shortage includes the rhesus monkey 
and other primate species needed for health and other 
scientific purposes.! The primate shortage has not 
been met by private enterprise. Federal action is 
required to deal with the problem. 
A. The Continuation of Many Essential Health Activities Depends Upon 
the Use of Nonhuman Primates. 
In 1977, an estimated total of 34,000 nonhuman primates^ often referred 
to simply as "primates" were used by the United States biomedical 
community in a wide variety of health-related activities. The use of 
these animals is so critical to some of these activities that specific 
laws and regulations^ dictate their use. In others, good scientific 
practice developed through many years of experience requires their use 
with force equivalent of that of law.^>^ The essentiality of their use 
rests in large extent upon the relation of the nonhuman primate to 
Nonhuman primates imported into the United States have, in the past, 
been used primarily to meet many health needs, such as the production 
and testing of vaccines, safety testing of drugs, and biomedical re¬ 
search. They are also essential for other closely related bioscientific 
purposes, such as behavioral research and the development of basic 
information regarding the biology of primates, per se. Because of the 
interdependence of these activities and their importance to health 
programs, this report is intended to reflect requirements for all 
health and bioscientific purposes. For simplicity, the term "health" 
or "biomedical" will be used inclusively to Incorporate all of these 
various scientific uses. 
2 
See appendix A. 
^Title 21 CFR 600-680 (Food & Drugs; Biologies). 
^ FDA Introduction to Total Drug Quality , DHEW Pub. No. (FDA) 74-3006, 
Washington, D.C., 1974. 
^Food and Drug Administration, Contraception, Estrogens, Progestogens; 
A New FDA Policy on Animal Studies , FDA Papers, vol. 3, Washington, 
D.C., 1969. 
