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Stop Animal Exploitation NOW!
S. A. E. N.
"Exposing the truth to wipe out animal experimentation"

Articles and Reports

The Primate Experimentation Scandal, 2005: An Investigative Report
By Michael A. Budkie, A.H.T., Executive Director, SAEN

Appendix L

Examples of UCLA Primate Experimental Protocols

Computational Aspects of Primate Memory protocol # 1994-174-31 $228,750 per year from the NIH � involves 22 hours of liquid deprivation and confinement in restraint chairs for 3 � 4 hours per day; this also involves head restraint; five days per week; protocol mentions that the researchers has �40 years of experience�; electrodes in the brain.

Quantitative Studies of Cortical Vision Processing protocol # 98-214-03 $200,859 per year NIH funding � use of propofol and sufentanyl and use of paralytic drug (pancuronium bromide). Involves recording for up to 120 hours. We question the sufficiency of the anesthetic and use of a paralytic drug.

UCSF Research Protocols:

Neural Control of Eye Movements � Stephen Lisberger project is 24 years old and is funded through 2009. Uses 14 rhesus monkeys; brings $1.3 million to UCSF per year through 2 separate grants. Quotes from Protocol:

�First we prepare a place on the skull to cement a connector to which the wires from the coil are soldered. We clear a spot about the size of a nickel on the top of the skull just above the brow and tap 3 orthopedic self-taping screws into the skull. Second we prepare the eye for the coil. We use a scalpel to make a circular incision around the limbus, and blunt dissection under the microscope to open a space between Tenson�s capsule and the sclera. A pre-made coil is placed in the dissected space and cemented to the eyeball using a tiny amount of sterile histacryl blue (Vetbond). One or two sutures are taken in the conjunctiva to hold it and tendon�s capsule tight around the sclera. The leads from the coil are led subcutaneously to the site prepared for the connector and soldered. Dental acrylic is used to cement the connector to the screws in the bone. . . .

We use 3 or 4 titanium plates to secure the head holding socket to the skull. The plates are about 4m wide and 2cm long and they have as many holes as can be fit. They are implanted in a radial configuration centered at the site on the skull where the head holding socket will sit. To implant the plates, we make a midline incision in the scalp and clear the muscle and periosteum off the bone. We bend the plates so they follow the profile of the skull and we then use a hand drill to drill and tap 3 to 6 holes for screws that secure the plates to the skull. A small volume of dental acrylic is then used to secure the head-holding socket to the plates at the point where they converge and the skin is sutured to cover the plates and approximate nicely to the implant. . . .

A trephine is sued to expose the dura by cutting a circular hole in the calvarium at a site that is localized by the use of a stereotaxic apparatus. We place several bolts and/or self-tapping screws in the bone around the periphery of the opening and secure the cylinder to the bolts with dental acrylic. The cylinder is then filled with saline and antibiotic and caped with a secure plastic cap.

An incision is made behind the ear and blunt dissection is used to carefully clear a large area of temporal bone. While viewing through an operating microscope, a large burr is used to gently drill through the air cells of the temporal bone until the largest air cell, the antrum is exposed. The antrum is then gently enlarged until the bone of the labyrinth appears. A diamond burr is then used to gently thin the bone over the canal selected for the implant until a thin blue line appears, denoting endosteal bone. A dissecting pin is then used to make a tiny hole in the wall of the canal, and the active electrode is placed in contact with the bone in one of the air cells, and a combination of histacryl blue (vetbond) and dental cement is then used to secure the wires in place.�

Behavior training sessions last for one � two hours. All fluids are given during training sessions. Therefore, primates can go for 22 hours, 5 days per week without water or fluids of any kind.

Neural Correlates of Sensorimotor Adaptation in Macaque Cortex -- Similar procedures to above protocol, use of electrodes, recording cylinders, head restraint socket, etc. This protocol uses food and/or water deprivation.

Structural Basis of Amblyopia and Strabismus � Jonathan Horton $525,000

Rat experiments involve �monocular enucleation� removal of one eye. They use ketamine in rats. It is only approved for use in cats and primates. One eye is sewed closed to cause visual deprivation. Animal anesthetized for 5 days continuously. 24 hour monitoring is unlikely. These animals not covered by the AWA. Withheld procedures for primates and cats. According to publication circa 2003 the primates have one eye removed.

The Representation of Retinal Blood Vessels in Primate Striate Cortex

Daniel L. Adams and Jonathan C. Horton

Beckman Vision Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143-0730

The Journal of Neuroscience, July 9, 2003, 23(14):5984-5997

�Experimental animals. These experiments were performed on 12 adult squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) from an indoor colony at the California Regional Primate Research Center (Davis, CA). All procedures were approved by the University of California San Francisco Committee on Animal Research. Each animal was normal, verified by complete ophthalmological examination under ketamine anesthesia (15 mg/kg, i.m.). During this examination, the ocular fundi were photographed with a model TRC-FE camera (Topcon Medical Systems, Paramus, NJ) mounted on a platform that allowed easy pivoting around the center of the optical axis on the corneal front surface. These photographs were montaged using Photoshop 6.0 (Adobe Systems, San Jose, CA).

After the photographic montages of the fundi were prepared (usually 1 week later), each animal was brought back to the laboratory for calibration of the pictures by projection of retinal landmarks onto a tangent screen. Each animal was given ketamine HCl (15 mg/kg, i.m.), intubated, and respirated with 2% isoflorane in a 50:50 mixture of O2/N2O. Under general anesthesia the following parameters were monitored continuously: temperature, EKG, heart rate, respiratory rate, tidal volume, end-tidal CO2, SpO2, inspiratory and expiratory isoflorane, O2, and N2O concentrations. Paralysis was induced with succinylcholine HCl at an infusion rate of 45 mg/kg, i.v.

The animal was placed in a stereotaxic frame mounted on a model 413 professional tripod (Gitzo, Cr�teil, France). The tripod allowed us to orient the stereotaxic frame to align the eye's visual axis perpendicular to the center of a 6 x 9 foot tangent screen located 57 inches away. The pupils were dilated with 2.5% neosynephrine HCl and 0.125% scopolamine HCl drops. A hard 7.5 mm diameter contact lens was used to prevent corneal drying.

The fundus montage (prepared in advance) was used to select a prominent retinal landmark (e.g., a vessel bifurcation). The landmark was then identified through the fundus camera in the anesthetized, paralyzed animal. The crosshair of the camera was focused on the landmark and locked in place. Next, a mirror was placed flush against the barrel of the objective lens, and the shutter was tripped with the back of the camera open. This reflected a small circle of light back to the tangent screen at a position corresponding to the retinal landmark. With practice, retinal landmarks in the central 30� could be projected with an accuracy of �0.1�. After plotting 15 landmarks, we rechecked the position of the first few to ensure that no eye movements had occurred during the hour required for retinal calibration. Eye movements were rare because of the high dose of succinylcholine used during these brief measurements. The calibration process was repeated in the fellow eye, after the tripod was adjusted to position its optical axis perpendicular to the tangent screen. Positioning the optical axis perpendicular to the tangent screen made it easy to convert distance ( ) on the tangent screen from the foveal projection point to degrees eccentricity ( ) by using the formula = arctan /57.

After finishing the calibration process for each retina, we enucleated one eye using sterile technique.�

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