The research monkeys ‘Made in China’

Research monkeys ‘Made in China’ – Hubei Tian Qin Company produces macaques for use in research experiments.

Strict management of the 700 monkeys in the facility provides standardized research monkeys that can replicate accurate, true effects in the experiments that they are used for.

100,000 monkeys are provided for laboratory use to the United States, Britain, Japan, and other countries, predominantly from suppliers in China, India, and other Asian countries with low production costs. Hubei Tian Qin Company is an industrial company of animals that tame and reproduce experimental macaques. A ring of walls and two doors separated it from the other building completely.

No one is allowed to enter the breeding area except the breeder and the experimental staff. Enter the macaque breeding area, Humble cottages which are in the monkey house stand on the floor. There are more than 700 monkeys live in the 101 rooms now. The breeding center has strict management in the raising process. To get to the standard experimental monkey, the experimental monkeys must be in strict and standardized management. The recipes are made by themselves.

Also, adjustments will be made according to the change of the season. For example, add some eggs and nutrition during the lactation period. The breeder also uses the disinfectant to wash the floor and sewage ditch twice a week. Monkey house is divided into two kinds, one kind is the breeding area in the monkey house, usually a male and seven females, another kind is the cage of baby monkeys, there are ten babies in each cage. This kind of polygamy can make the neonatal monkey lineages very clear; can effectively prevent the inbred, thereby preventing the decline in fecundity and population decline.

Experimental monkey is standard, it is the artificial domestication, clear source of genetic lineages. Through strict quality control, they can be true, reflect the accurate effect in the experiment. As human’s cousins, the money whose gene above 96% is homologous. The most reliable results are from the application of the assessment of drug safety. The number of the animal categories in the general breeding center has reached 10000 and above in China. In some places, the breeding scale is also expanding and the experimental monkeys are about 145000.

According to the statistics of Chinese experimental primate breeding and developing association in 2015: There are 40 experimental macaques companied in China, ten of them are larger

Photographer: Li Feng, China

Li Feng is a Getty Images staff photographer based in Beijing.

© Li Feng, China, 2nd Place, Professional , Environment, 2016 Sony World Photography Awards