Though importation of free-living chimpanzees from Africa is currently restricted, some fear that the restrictions will be lifted because of increasing demands by pharmaceutical industries, among others. This could present a serious threat to the survival of this species in the wild. Another argument against their use is the extreme suffering imposed by the laboratory environment itself. 4 Chimps also have an extremely complex social structure, and spend large amounts of time socializing. These activities are denied to chimps who spend years confined in isolation cages.
Chimps can live well into their fifties.
There are many physiologic and anatomical differences between chimpanzees and humans. Data obtained on chimpanzees cannot be extrapolated safely to the human situation. AIDS Experimenters have been infecting chimps with the HIV virus since 1984. None have become clinically ill, in spite of being infected with several different strains of the virus, having their immune systems altered with drugs, having treatments designed to specifically destroy the cells which are thought to be most active in protecting the body from HIV infection, and being co-infected with other viruses which were presumed to help HIV gain a foothold. Experimenters have even injected human HIV-infected brain tissue directly into chimpanzee brains, but to no avail. 5 HIV does not reproduce well in the infected chimp.