$20,000 monkeys: how demand for lab animals is driving illegal trade in endangered macaques

In 2019, Jonah Sacha, a researcher at Oregon Health and Science University, received a delivery of 20 monkeys from Mauritius. As part of his research into stem-cell transplants as an HIV treatment, he performs tests on long-tailed macaques. The captive-bred monkeys were legally imported using an approved vendor, and looked healthy. However, when Sacha tested them, one appeared to have latent tuberculosis (TB). None of the monkeys could be used because Sacha needed disease-free animals to produce accurate research. "My feeling was one of utter despair; it set this project back by more than a year and a half," he…