Sick chinchillas languish at farms that supply researchers

doi:10.1126/science.368.6494.928

GSTDTAP > 气候变化

DOI	10.1126/science.368.6494.928
	Sick chinchillas languish at farms that supply researchers
	Meredith Wadman
	2020-05-29
发表期刊	Science
出版年	2020
英文摘要	Biomedical researchers rely on chinchillas—docile South American rodents with ears strikingly similar to those of humans—for studies of ear infections and hearing loss. But the two main U.S. chinchilla suppliers to research labs have for years violated the U.S. Animal Welfare Act, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which enforces that law. Until the coronavirus pandemic descended, the two suppliers sent hundreds of animals to U.S. labs. Those suppliers failed to identify and treat sick and injured animals, kept them in filthy barns and excrement-laden enclosures, and failed to clear dead animals, according to USDA inspection reports recently restored to full public view. One supplier, Moulton Chinchilla Ranch (MCR) in Chatfield, Minnesota, has a 9-year record of violations and was to have faced an agency judge in April at a hearing; that hearing was postponed because of the pandemic. MCR is the only chinchilla provider listed in the Buyers Guide produced by the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS). “How is this business allowed to continue to operate given the issues that have been repeatedly identified?” asks Cathy Liss, president of the nonprofit Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), which advocates for lab animals. AALAS President Tracy Parker says its Buyers Guide lists only USDA-licensed research animal suppliers, but that the organization does not check compliance with the Animal Welfare Act. That's up to researchers and institutions, she says. “It's very troubling to me that it looks like research facilities that are continuing to utilize chinchillas haven't pressured [MCR] to improve. … I would not allow animals from this facility into my program.” In a 2019 court filing, MCR proprietor Dan Moulton denied a long list of violations documented in a formal complaint that USDA filed in November 2018. He says he complied with the law, doing “very well for many years,” until his USDA inspectors changed about 5 years ago. “The Animal Welfare Act is written in such a way that it can be broadly interpreted for purposes of citation,” Moulton told Science . Long-tailed chinchillas ( Chinchilla lanigera ) are squirrel-size rodents native to the Andes. In 2019, U.S. biomedical researchers used 1250 of the animals, down by about one-third from the numbers used in 2014, according to USDA data curated by AWI. MCR and the other offending facility, Ryerson Chinchilla Ranch (RCR) in Plymouth, Ohio, are the suppliers most often cited in recent papers in journals including Cell and Science Translational Medicine . USDA's complaint against MCR documented 85 animals that failed to receive veterinary care between September 2014 and May 2017. It described an excrement-ridden, understaffed barn housing lethargic animals with weeping, open wounds; putrid abscesses; and, most commonly, infected eyes. In seven out of eight inspections after the complaint was filed, the agency found continuing violations, including tight collars overlying open sores. Filing a complaint is the most serious enforcement action USDA can take. Complaints can lead to a hearing at which a facility's license may be suspended or revoked. USDA says because of the pandemic, a new date has not been set for the postponed April hearing. Moulton, a lawyer, told Science that he, his wife, and one 25-hour-per-week worker maintain 546 animals in a 771-square-meter barn. He adds that he supplies only healthy animals to researchers. “If the eyes are not bright, you don't send them. If the animals have got loose stool, you don't send them.” Sanford Feldman, director of comparative medicine at the University of Virginia, says he has consulted with Moulton in recent years as Moulton tried to rid his facility of endemic Streptococcus zooepidemicus , a pathogen that causes conjunctivitis, abscesses, and other problems. Feldman reviewed MCR's recent USDA inspection reports. “Broken wire cages with sharp edges, that's a no-no. Collars that had cut into the skin—you are supposed to inspect them every day,” Feldman says. Still, Feldman says, “Were the animals suffering terribly? No. … Fundamentally the guy wants to do right by the animals. He still hasn't come to the conclusion that right is going mean a big investment.” USDA has not filed a formal complaint against RCR, the other facility often used by researchers. But a USDA inspector cited RCR in 2017 for failing to disclose the existence of 1000 chinchillas and for using an unspecified “painful” and “unacceptable” method of euthanasia. In February and March, USDA inspectors reported RCR animals with eyes swollen or crusted shut, a cold and rigid dead chinchilla, and a filthy facility reeking of ammonia. The proprietor, Jan Ryerson, could not be located for comment. AALAS will await the outcome of the USDA legal proceedings before taking any action to remove MCR from its Buyers Guide, Parker says. However, the University of Oklahoma reports that it dropped MCR as a supplier in 2018. “[MCR] animals were not of the quality we needed for our research,” says Ronald Banks, the university's director of comparative medicine.
领域	气候变化 ; 资源环境
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文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.173/C666/handle/2XK7JSWQ/271731
专题	气候变化资源环境科学
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Meredith Wadman. Sick chinchillas languish at farms that supply researchers[J]. Science,2020.
APA	Meredith Wadman.(2020).Sick chinchillas languish at farms that supply researchers.Science.
MLA	Meredith Wadman."Sick chinchillas languish at farms that supply researchers".Science (2020).