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Chiron Corporation is a biotechnology company that participates in three markets: biopharmaceuticals, blood testing and vaccines.

The following extracts from the diary of Michelle Rokke offer an insight in to the animal abuse funded by Chiron at HLS in the US:

11/30/96 Saturday HLS

I cleaned 3617, room 951, many of these primates still have scars and wounds from femoral catheters that cardio implanted. This is a Chiron study that started out as a different study.

12/4/96 Wednesday HLS

Obbed and fed 3617. These primates are referred to as the 'cardio monkeys'. Jennifer always says she feels sorry for them, because they've been through so much.
Cardio is doing more practice surgeries on dogs tomorrow. Six dogs from the extra colony will have femoral catheters implanted and then will be hooked up to saline pumps for about a week.

1/l/97 Wednesday HLS

Obbed and cleaned 3617, the Chiron monkeys. Irene told me their cages haven't been changed for a long time and they are way overdue for a cage change.

1/22/97 Wednesday HLS

The Chiron primates in 97-3619 had sponges implanted in their backs today. Each primate had six incisions made and tiny one-centimetre gel-soaked sponges were implanted under their skin. The primates will be given an injection three times a week with the dose material. The injection is supposed to go into the sponge.

Al and Brian were surgeons, Irene and Cesair prepped, Yao assisted and Kevin and I worked recovery. The primates were given an injection of Ketamine and one of atropine. The right arm was tattooed with the new study number. These primates have been used in many different studies and each now has three tattoos and at least one ear-tag. Cesair tattooed the primates and they jumped and jerked whenever the tattoo needle made contact with their skin. At least one other person and sometimes two, had to restrain the animal during the procedure. Irene pointed out the fact the tattoo site swells up almost immediately because their skin is so thin. Before the four-digit tattoo was done, the first digits had already puffed up and caused swelling all along the monkey's forearm.

The primates are masked down with isoflurane to make them calm enough to intubate. While Al prepared to start the surgery on the sixth primate, and Irene, Cesair and I prepped the seventh for Brian. Al came into the prep room and asked if we had more autoclaved surgical packs ready. I had put two in the autoclave nearly 50 minutes before but the pressure hadn't even built up enough to start the sterilization. Al took some individually sterilized instruments into the operating room but he didn't have a complete set. He came back in the prep room and waited by the autoclave.

Meanwhile the two primates were fully anaesthetised. I saw AI push the timer on the autoclave ahead so it would 'ding' before the process was complete. He carried the two packs into the OR and saw that only one had been fully sterilized. The sterilization tape on the lower pack had not changed colour and he had to return it to the autoclave. One primate was still anaesthetised on the table and the surgery on him had not yet begun. When the second pack was through being autoclaved I rushed it into the OR and saw Brian was halfway through the surgery on his primate but he was using the operating table that Al had been using. He declined the new pack and motioned to the instruments all around him saying he was fine. He had apparently just moved his primate to Al's table and used his dirty instruments.
After lunch Gene came in and told us Yao would be doing the surgery on the last primate and he had checked it with Terry, the veterinarian.

The sponsor, Rob Tressler, flew the test material and sponges from California personally and the study director asked him to observe the first surgery. He was talking about animal rights and said in the community his lab is in [around Berkeley] all hell would break loose if they [animal rights activists] ever found out they had non-human primates. Dian Blasett said “... Huntingdon is lucky because of the location and the fact New Jersey had all those pharmaceutical companies and they'd rather hit those." Mr. Tressler said he had worked at Southwest Research Institute for awhile and they had about 1500 otters they were doing electro magnetic research on and he didn't even want to know about it - they were really lucky no one knew about it.

Several of the primates still had catheters implanted in them from the last study they were in. I felt a femoral catheter in one of the last monkeys I carried in. Irene showed me one monkey who, once he was anaesthetised and his head fell back, had a big three -five inch loop of plastic tubing coming out of his skin. The area where the catheter was coming out of the skin was red and inflamed. Irene showed me how it had come through the primate's skin.

I remember when I first began obbing 96-3617, some of the primates were observed as having open wounds after the catheters were pulled. When I asked Irene why so many of these same monkeys still had catheters, she said if they look like they've healed up alright they leave them in, but if they look infected and inflamed they pull them, though, of course usually they're sac'ed so they don't do anything with them.

Terry noted in the pre-study physical that four of the primates still had catheter demarcations.

1/25/97 Saturday HLS

I obbed the cardio primates (Chiron) who had surgery on Wednesday. Number 3580F had swelling around the second incision on the left. Later, in the tech room, I told Irene and Brian about it and Brian said, "You didn't write it down did you?" I told him I had. He shook his head and told me I shouldn't have. I laughed at him and pointed out 'my schedule clearly read "ob 3619 --check sutures." He kept shaking his head and told me again I shouldn't have written it down.

When I did afternoon obs, I saw in addition to the swelling on 3580's second incision, number 4180 had swelling around the first incision on the left. During AM obs, 4180 'had blood coming from her left nostril.
Brian, who works in necropsy, asked Irene, Brian Crane, and I if all twelve of the Chiron monkeys had been operated on the same day. He groaned when we said they had. He said the sponges were really hard to find in the last group of monkeys who had the sponges implanted. Irene said, "They drift, don't they?" He agreed they really did. [If the sponges drift around under the skin, how does the experiment work?]

Gene told me the sponges mimic a tumour and the test material is supposed to reduce the growth of capillaries that feed tumours. Supposedly, the control group will be identifiable because at necropsy, the control group will have capillaries all around the sponges and the high dose groups will not have capillaries found around the sponges. Gene told me this is a 'blind' study and no one knows which group is getting which dose or which is the control. He said even the sponsor who flew the test material in and will be reading the histology slides doesn't know. Brian told me Gene is wrong, that pharmacy knows, Gene knows, the sponsor knows, and he knows. Everyone knows.

Gene gave me a copy of a scientific paper on the angioneses process, which is what this test is about.
Irene said the last time they did this study, it was "very hard to dose them because the injection has to be given in the sponge and the sponges move around a lot under the skin". [If the sponges drift around as much as everyone says, how can the experiment mimic a tumour and blood supply situation??]

1/26/97 Sunday HLS

The cardio primates (Chiron) are very fearful now after the surgeries. Before the operation, there were always eight or nine of the twelve who would take treats from my hand. Now, only two trust me enough to get that close. Even the very friendly ones not only shrink back from me, they actually strike out. #3180 and 4180 both have swelling around one incision. #3081 has a length of suture-like material about two inches long coming from the first incision.

1/29/97 Wednesday HLS

I helped dose the cardio (Chiron) primates. The test material is injected into the six sponges implanted in each monkey's back. The first primate I caught was number 4083 - -the one who lobbed as having a swollen area around the first incision over the weekend. Irene gasped when she saw blood spurting from her back and then said "Oh, it's so infected it must have burst open just from the pressure of being held on the cage." As I held the primate suspended on the cage door, she pressed on the wound and bloody pus spurted out and dripped all over the floor. The monkey winced and jumped each time she pressed on it. Brian asked Terry to come in and look at it. When she saw it she just said "Yeah?" [Like, what do you want me to do about it?] He asked if we should still dose her and she said, "Yes, go ahead." The primate jumped and winced each time Irene injected her back. When she got to the infected site she warned me to hold on tightly because she would jump --it would hurt her. She was right, the primate jumped violently when the needle entered the sore, infected area. Irene wondered when the site had become infected. I told her I had obbed both this primate and 3083 as having infected sites over the weekend. Irene gave me a dirty look and said 4083 had been NE'd [recorded as not evident] on Monday. Then, she added, now it looks swollen, today. (as the blood and pus continued to ooze out down the primate's back and onto the floor.)

I looked at 3083's back and saw the second incision on the left looked much more swollen and some of the other sites seemed puffy as well. A vet request had been filled out for her.
Several of the other primates had puffy areas on their backs around the incision sites. So many I couldn't ask about all of them.

2/5/97 Wednesday HLS

Held primates for dosing in 3619. The test material is injected in the sponges implanted in their backs. They wince and jump each time the needle enters their skin. Some of the incisions are still very infected.
Yao and I changed the cages in 3619. One of the primates got loose later in the day. Yao caught it with a catchpole. While we were changing cages, Terry came in to look at 4083's back. The first incision on the left is extremely infected. Before we dosed, AI and Irene drained so much blood and pus from it there was a pool of it on the floor under the primate. Less than two hours later, when Terry looked at it, it had already refilled with blood and pus and she drained it again. She said as long as it was open and draining it's ok and no treatment is required. We can continue to dose it. The technicians are concerned the sponge may pop out of the opening when the pus runs out.

Terry asked Yao to catch 4083 so she could look at her. Yao had a hard time getting the monkey on the door of the cage, and in the process of grabbing and struggling, the primate tore a big piece of Yao's glove off. It was such a stressful capture at one point Terry turned to me and asked if I was certified to catch. (I think she wanted me to try because Yao was not doing a good job -it was very chaotic.) I told her "They've been having me catch them for dosing and tests but I'm not certified." Then she said, "This is why I want all the monkeys to wear collars." [The collars she referred to are hard plastic collars that lock around the animal's neck. The sides of the collar extend out several inches so the primate can be snared with a long hooked pole and dragged to the front of the cage. The primates would have to wear these collars 24 hours a day, every day they were at the lab. Not only would it not necessarily minimize injury it would create a whole new set of problems including increased entrapment in the cages, constant misery for the primates, potential for serious injury and even death if the collars are not routinely checked for size and comfort. With the careless attitude of the employees at HLS this would almost certainly be a problem.

I came back to help with ECG's, covering for Irene who was sick. Yimmer and Dilip took turns running the ECG machine and holding monkeys, Michael from rodent tox did blood pressures and they told me to catch primates. I told them I was just learning how to catch and they told me that's still what I should do. Normally when I help with ECG's I run the blood pressure machines because I've been certified to do that.

Even though Irene and Al have both told me the way I've been trained to do it is not the way it should be done.

2/12/97 Wednesday HLS

The primates in study 3619 were sacced today. Al came into surgery and told Gene necropsy was having trouble finding the sponges and were calling the sponsor.

I went to the necropsy room after surgery and watched Brian and Jim finish the necropsy of one of the group four primates. The primate was split wide open in a pool of blood. I could still see her heart beating. Brian told me the sponges were very hard to find, they had moved around a lot. He said they couldn't have made them any harder to find, the sponges were the same colour as the fat layer, sort of a fleshy coloured pale pink-tan colour. I told them the sponges had started out bright pink. They retrieved most of what they thought were the sponges from that primate and then Jim cut all the skin from the primate's back and folded it into a zip lock baggie. He said the sponsor had suggested they do that if they weren't sure about the sponges.

I asked them if they thought the injections of test material we'd been giving them had reached any of the sponges since they'd drifted so much. Brian said probably not, if we went by the incisions.

Al brought in the next primate. He had given the primate an injection of Xyla-ject. He brought her in wrapped up like a baby - in a garbage can liner, with just her head sticking out. They put her on the wet and bloody necropsy table. Brian picked up his razor knife and grabbed a chunk of hair on her upper arm lifting the skin up. Then he began hacking at the arm. His razor was dull and he took several swipes before removing a chunk of flesh the size of a lemon. I was so shocked I couldn't even ask what he was doing - the primate was still very much alive!! While Jim approached with sodium pentobarbital, Brian drummed his fingers on the primate's mouth making noises. Jim injected the drug into the primate's very exposed vein while Brian held it off. I asked if that was the way they always did it. Brian told me "Yeah, we're lazy." Jim said "That's why Terry makes us use xylazine now. "We used to just use ketamine, but she put a stop to that."

They cut the primate's chest open and took a blood sample before retrieving the sponges. While Jim did that, Brian wrote his initials in the blood on the table. They were able to retrieve all six sponges. This was a group one monkey and they said they were able to get all the sponges out of those.

I told Brian Crane about the primate necropsies I watched. I told him about the colour of the sponges and how they had drifted. I asked about the possibility of any of the test material being any where near the sponges. He shrugged and said "Probably not. The sponsor is looking for an animal model to conduct this study on and I guess maybe monkeys aren't it."