It has been learned that a South Carolina bio-research facility has used primates for vaccine research. Monkeys escaped from the lab in November.
American Faith reported that residents of Yemasee were told to shut their doors and windows after more than 40 rhesus macaque monkeys escaped from research lab Alpha Genesis.
Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard told WSAV at the time that a worker left a door open while cleaning the enclosure.
According to The Post and Courier, a Boston research team used the Alpha Genesis lab to test a Zika vaccine. The Zika study followed the virus infecting an estimated 1.5 million people in Brazil beginning in 2015, the report explained. The virus, also spread sexually, is found in mosquitos in South Carolina’s Lowcountry. It may also be spread sexually.
Melissa Nolan, director of the University of South Carolina Institute of Infectious Disease, told The Post and Courier, “A unique aspect of Zika is that it’s not just mosquito transmitted, it’s sexually transmitted. When we think about the real concern for pregnancies and fetuses, and any unborn children. It’s not just eliminating the mosquito exposure. When you think about families that are trying to conceive, if one of them got infected, it could be transmitted to their partner.”
The laboratory has also reportedly conducted research on the COVID and HIV viruses, claiming that its projects were approved by an internal ethics committee.
The report explained that the committee’s work is “so closely held that some members’ names are redacted in reports it must file with a federal agency,” noting that information relating to the experiments’ progress is not made public.
Westergard told the outlet in an email that Alpha Genesis has received inquiries from pharmaceutical companies about bird flu vaccines. He explained that some of the studies would require moving monkeys to another laboratory.
The Alpha Genesis CEO further emphasized that three federal agencies oversee the lab, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which “routinely reviews our [internal committee] IACUC practices and protocols as part of their oversight regimen,” Westergard said.
