Primate breeding/testing facility to be built

Melbourne primate researchers could look to the United States for further funding to back a new Gippsland monkey house.

Monash University has revealed plans to build the $5 million primate-breeding centre as an extension of its existing national marmoset breeding and research program, saying it also intended to house the macaques currently living at the University of Melbourne's Werribee campus.

Construction of the National Health and Medical Research Centre funded facility is expected to begin this year, and is due for completion in early 2003.

Monash director of animal services Stephen Marshall said the new facility was simply intended to bring all the animals under one roof for welfare considerations.

He said the animals, which were treated as humanely as possible, would be used for existing programs researching treatments for AIDS, HIV and Parkinson's disease, among other neurological disorders, and were used only when there were no other options.

Marshall said the university might seek external funding, locally and overseas, for further development of the centre, with the National Institutes of Health one potential target.

The plan for the centre has come under fire from animal activists this week who claim the facility could encourage more scientific experimentation on primates.