STAT+: International monitor recommends end to monkey shipments from Cambodia

The officials who oversee an international treaty governing endangered species recommended suspending shipments of long-tailed macaques — which are regularly used in medical research — from Cambodia. The move also follows controversy over shipments involving Charles River Laboratories, one of the largest contract research organizations serving the pharmaceutical industry.

The recommendation was disclosed by the Secretariat for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, which pointed to an episode three years ago when U.S. authorities investigated a smuggling ring in Cambodia that had improperly caught and shipped long-tailed macaques. The primates are protected by international law.

A subsequent crackdown in the U.S. sparked scrutiny of shipping practices by companies that serve the pharmaceutical industry. As previously reported, the CITES Secretariat also examined complaints made last August that Charles River improperly shipped these primates from Cambodia to Canada. At the time, a Canadian government agency found certain flights violated Canadian law over permitting.

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