Labs Must Show They No Longer Abuse Baboons

The government, citing “a serious breach” of trust, ordered the University of Pennsylvania on Friday to review all of its research laboratories for animal cruelty and open its labs to federal inspectors to verify that abuses have been corrected.

The Health and Human Services Department told the university that a controversial research program that inflicted head injuries on laboratory baboons will remain suspended until reforms are in place. The department temporarily suspended that research program July 18 based on a preliminary investigation.

It also ordered the university to provide new assurances, including allowing federal inspections, that all of its laboratories provide humane treatment of research animals.

The new assurances must be provided whether or not the university wants to resume the head research project, the government said. The university could lose its federal research grants if it fails to provide the assurances, HHS said.