Chimpanzees used for vaccine research get health checks as part of long-term care

Chimpanzees once used in hepatitis B vaccine experiments are getting health checks at their new home in LiberiaABUJA, Nigeria -- A group of chimpanzees that were once used for hepatitis B vaccine experiments in laboratories have received health checks at their new home in Liberia, in hopes of giving them a second chance at a normal life.The West African chimpanzees received checks ranging from teeth cleaning to X-rays and pedicure at the Humane World for Animals’ Second Chance Chimpanzee Refuge in central Liberia, Liliana Pacheco Ricote, director of the sanctuary, told The Associated Press.More than 400 of the chimpanzees had been used by American researchers in Liberia in the hepatitis B vaccine experiments from the 1970s until early 2000s, Ricote said, many of them captured in the wild as infants.Liberia has the second-highest number of chimpanzees in West Africa, after Guinea. The West African chimpanzees are classified as critically endangered species because of their rapidly declining numbers.“They were used in very invasive research … (and) went through a lot of experiments and pain,” Ricote said.Humane World for Animals said that in 2015, it assumed permanent responsibility ...