Source: Sydney Morning Herald
Europe has banned the use of great apes in animal testing as part of drastically tightened rules to scale back the use of animals in general in scientific research.
After two years of heated debate on how to protect animal welfare without scuppering scientific research, the new limits, updating regulations from 1986, were adopted by the European Parliament on Wednesday.
Under the new rules, experiments on great apes such as chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans will be banned altogether and "strict" restrictions set on the use of primates in general.
Members of the 27-nation bloc also will have "to ensure that whenever an alternative method is available, this is used instead of animal testing.
The new legislation also aims at "reducing levels of pain inflicted on animals."
