The U.S. Is Running Out of Research Monkeys

America’s monkey shortage is getting worse. The pandemic has exacerbated a continuing supply crunch, throttling research and threatening the country’s ability to respond to public health disasters, including the next pandemic.

That is according to a new report published Thursday by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine that noted that new ways of studying biology, using artificial-intelligence models or cells in culture, aren’t ready to replace testing in monkeys.

“At this point in time [monkeys] continue to be essential models in biomedical research,” said Kenneth Ramos, a physician-scientist at Texas A&M University System and chair of the committee that wrote the report. The National Academies is an independent scientific group that provides advice to the federal government.