The Oregon Regional Primate Research Center which is part of the Oregon
Health Sciences University has done research using primates.  One experiment that
was done was on nutrional deprivation.  Infant rhesus monkeys are removed from
their mothers when they are born.  They are put in steel cages.  Rhesus
monkeys are considered the most social of all primates.  These babies are observed
to be stressed with "constant rocking, continued clutching at themselves and
self-mutilation" They have 3 or 4 brain surgeries while alive and are killed
before 3 years of age.

Why?  The experimental question was:  "Do human babies really need the
preformed long-chain fatty acids [DHA ] present in human milk?"

Dr. Martha Neuringer has been doing this research for many years.  In the
eighties her research was used as one of the reasons for the addition of taurine
to infant formula.  Her research is used as a reference (a footnote) to
various papers including papers on the need for fortification (DHA) for preterm
babies.

Ethics?   One might question the need for harming animals in order to present
proof for the use certain components in infant formulas and in human milk
fortification.  So again, if a researcher from a primate lab wants human milk for
his or her "orphaned" primates, I'd tell them to take a hike.
Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC


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