The Biomedical Primate Research Centre (BPRC) is Europe's largest primate animal testing research centre. It is a scientific research institute that performs research that contributes to the identification and development of new medicines against deadly diseases. It is located in

Rijswijk Rijswijk (), formerly known as Ryswick ( ) in English, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. Its population was in , and it has an area of , of which is water. The municipality also includes th ...

(

South Holland South Holland ( nl, Zuid-Holland ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.7 million as of October 2021 and a population density of about , making it the country's most populous province and one of the world's most densely ...

) and employs about 110 people. The BPRC is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. Before it became an independent foundation on December 7, 1994, it was part of the

Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek (TNO; en, Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research) is an independent research organisation in the Netherlands that focuses on applied science. The organisat ...

. The main research areas are Immunobiology, Parasitology, Virology, Ethology and Alternatives for Animal Research. The BPRC houses rhesus macaques and marmosets to be used in biomedical research involving

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

hepatitis Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver tissue. Some people or animals with hepatitis have no symptoms, whereas others develop yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of the eyes (jaundice), poor appetite, vomiting, tiredness, abdominal pa ...

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

and

auto-immune In immunology, autoimmunity is the system of immune responses of an organism against its own healthy cells, tissues and other normal body constituents. Any disease resulting from this type of immune response is termed an "autoimmune disease". P ...

diseases. In 2002 the Dutch government forbade any further testing on

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative th ...

s, though it allowed trials already in progress to end. In 2015, BPRC was reported to use about 200

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...

s a year for experiments. Protestors gather regularly in front of the BPRC gates and there are calls in the Dutch parliament to close the centre. In September 2018, undercover images showed animal abuse at this center leading to questions in the Dutch Parlement.''Undercoverbeelden Rijswijks apencentrum BPRC tonen wangedrag en disrespect dierproefnemers''
('Undercover images Rijswijks apencentrum BPRC show misconduct and disrespect animal experiments researchers'). EDEV, 7 Sep 2018

References

External links

BPRC's website
Animal rights Animal testing Organizations established in 1994 Primate research centers Research institutes in the Netherlands Rijswijk {{animal-rights-stub