Conghua city yueyuan animal breeding farm

Conghua city yueyuan animal breeding farm (从化市棋杆镇悦源动物养殖场) is a monkey farm facility built in Conghua county Guangzhou, People's Republic of China. It houses monkeys to be sold internationally for scientific research.^[1]

History

The farm has been built since 2000, when breeding stocks of monkeys were imported from Cambodia. Mainland China now have 39 farms. Official figures put the 2008 number of monkeys licensed for export at 170,000. After completion in 2009 the monkey farm is the biggest in the world, housing 50,000 primates. The monkeys are used scientific testing for causes such as gene therapy, cures for cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, stem cells and antibody-based treatments.^[1]

Customer

A surgeon of the farm said that the United States is the biggest overseas customers. Other customers include South Korea and Germany. Shirley McGreal, director of the International Primate Protection League (IPPL), said that the United States Department of Defense is one of the biggest client using the monkeys in biological warfare weapons research. The monkeys are poisoned with sarin, anthrax, ebola during experimentation.^[1]

The price paid for healthy and pathogen-free monkeys when exported cost between US$2,000 and US$3,000 each, equating to a market that runs into hundreds of millions of dollars.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} South China Morning Post. "SCMP." Made to suffer: Exporting primates for research. Retrieved on 2009-09-15.