Nafovanny in Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

 is the largest captive-breeding primate facility in the world, supplying long-tailed macaque

Crab-eating Macaque

The Crab-eating macaque is a cercopithecine primate native to Southeast Asia. It is also called the "long-tailed macaque", and is referred to as the "cynomolgus monkey" in laboratories.-Etymology:...

s (Macaca fascicularis) to animal testing

Animal testing

Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and in vivo testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments. Worldwide it is estimated that the number of vertebrate animals—from zebrafish to non-human primates—ranges from the tens of millions to more than 100 million...

 laboratories, including Huntingdon Life Sciences

Huntingdon Life Sciences

Huntingdon Life Sciences is a contract animal-testing company founded in 1952 in England, with facilities in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire; Eye, Suffolk; New Jersey in the U.S., and Japan...

 in the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and Covance

Covance

Covance, Inc. , formerly Corning Incorporated, with headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey, USA, is a contract research organization , providing drug development and animal testing services...

 in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

Background

Nafovanny was set up in 1994 by Vanny Chian Technology, a Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

 company, according to Reuters

Reuters

Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...

. The company is reported to have set up a U.S.

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

$2 million joint venture company, called Nafovanny, with Vietnam's Forestry Ministry, with the intention of creating a network of monkey farms in southern Vietnam.

Responding to criticism of the project from Dr. John Wedderburn, a former member of the RSPCA's ruling council, Daniel Chen, a director of Vanny Chain Technology, said: "We have not got a problem with that because what we are doing is very humane and it is for the welfare of human beings."

Location and size

Nafovanny consists of two main farms in Long Thanh near the Cambodia

Cambodia

Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...

n border, with a total area of 90,000 square meters, able to hold 30,000 monkeys. According to the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection

British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection

The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection is a British animal protection and advocacy group that campaigns for the abolition of all animal experiments...

 (BUAV), the facility also maintains satellite breeding farms on the Cambodian border, in which the BUAV alleges wild monkeys may also be held; the existence of these farms is not referenced in the company's brochure, according to the BUAV. The British Home Office

Home Office

The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...

 has said it has no knowledge of Nafovanny satellite farms.

Customers

The British government approved Nafovanny to export primate

Primate

A primate is a mammal of the order Primates , which contains prosimians and simians. Primates arose from ancestors that lived in the trees of tropical forests; many primate characteristics represent adaptations to life in this challenging three-dimensional environment...

s to British laboratories in 1999. The British Animal Scientific Procedures Inspectorate

Animal Procedures Committee

The Animal Procedures Committee advises the British Home Secretary on matters related to animal testing in the UK. The function of the committee was made a statutory requirement by the Animals Act 1986 , which mandates that it should have at least 12 members, excluding the chair...

 visited Nafovanny in March 2005, and identified "shortcomings in animal accommodation and care," but since then the government has "received assurances and evidence that significant improvements have been made."

According to Viet Nam News, 3,000 Nafovanny macaques were exported to the U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

for testing purposes in 2000.

Further reading

• "Animal Research: Primates, Hansard, July 25, 2006.