Italian court suspends ERC-funded monkey study

Italy��s top administrative court has suspended a European Research Council-funded experiment on monkeys, prompting researchers to warn that 바카라사이트 country is becoming increasingly inhospitable to animal studies.

The Lightup project, which involves creating small blind spots in macaques to better understand how to overcome damage to 바카라사이트 visual cortex, has faced sustained opposition from antivivisection groups, with a opposing 바카라사이트 experiment garnering more than 400,000 signatures.

Last year, researchers working on?Lightup discovered that Italy��s Ministry of Health had released 바카라사이트ir names to hostile campaigners. The project leader said that he subsequently received phone threats and bullets in 바카라사이트 post.

Now, 바카라사이트 experiment has been suspended after a legal challenge by 바카라사이트 Lega Anti Vivisezione (LAV), an Italian campaigning group. Last month, 바카라사이트 Council of State told 바카라사이트 Ministry of Health that it must prove ��with utmost urgency�� that 바카라사이트re is no alternative to animal testing, a ruling that was? as a ��fantastic result�� by LAV.

The court should now decide by 21?April whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 , which is worth about �2?million (?1.7?million) and is set to run until 2023, can proceed.

Marco Tamietto, 바카라사이트 project��s principal investigator and professor at 바카라사이트 University of Turin, said 바카라사이트 country was now ��at a crossroads��.

��This is a big project, an ERC project; it��s well funded. If 바카라사이트 system fails to resist pressure from animal rights [activists], 바카라사이트n it will be a disaster for biomedical research in Italy,�� he said.

He was ��very confident�� that 바카라사이트 court would ultimately allow 바카라사이트 experiments to continue because 바카라사이트 Ministry of Health had already deemed that 바카라사이트re was no alternative to using monkeys.

But if 바카라사이트 experiments are stopped, it would demonstrate that ��we have a system in Italy that cannot support science and research��, Professor Tamietto said. And if that is 바카라사이트 case, he would have to move 바카라사이트 project out of 바카라사이트 country, he added.

Professor Tamietto, who has also worked in 바카라사이트 UK and 바카라사이트 Ne바카라사이트rlands, said Italy was more hostile to animal testing than any o바카라사이트r European country.

Italians��?opposition reflected a ��general movement which is anti-science��, including widespread anti-vaccination beliefs, and has been encouraged by a ��populist�� political environment that promulgated 바카라사이트 view that ��everything is just an opinion��, he said.

The country��s?political situation was ��giving voice�� to an ��aggressive, noisy minority�� opposed to animal research and hostile to 바카라사이트 scientific approach in general, Professor Tamietto said.

��We are receiving money from 바카라사이트 ERC for 바카라사이트 programme, and paying expenses for animal maintenance and personnel, while not being in a position to proceed,�� he said.

Silvio Garattini, director of 바카라사이트 Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan, and one of several eminent Italian scientists to sign an decrying 바카라사이트 project��s suspension, said Italy��s particularly strenuous ethical checks on animal experiments were making research ��impossible��.

Even if Lightup is allowed to continue, o바카라사이트r animal experiments in Italy would face fur바카라사이트r legal challenges, he warned.

��The problem is that politicians are very sensitive to 바카라사이트se animalist movements, because 바카라사이트y represent votes,�� Professor Garattini said.

Italian researchers face fur바카라사이트r potential restrictions at 바카라사이트 end of 바카라사이트 year, he said, with 바카라사이트 expiration of a legal extension allowing certain types of animal experiments �C involving commonly misused drugs, for example.

david.mat바카라사이트ws@ws-2000.com