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Chronicle (Levin), 9 November 1948, Page 5

WELLINGTON, Nov. 8. Monkeys are to be used in New Zealand for research into poliomyelitis. For the virus research department of Otago Fniversity, the Health Department has ordered 100 Rhesus monkeys from Jndia. It is reported from medical sources in Dunedin that the Department is already preparing to re ceive seven Rhesus monkeys from tln Wellington Zoo which are expected to arrive within a Aveelc. The 100 monkeys from India which will arrive in January, are to be followed by a further shipment of '100 every three months till all requirements are met. A medical authority assopiated with the studv of poliomyelitis, said toniglit that members of the monkey family were the only animals sufficiently susceptible to the virus of the poliomyelitis group to *nake their use a praetical pro position in experiments. The development of the nervous system of the Rhesus monkey was on "parallel lines to that of human beings and this made them susceptible to the virus which attacked the human nervous system. The use of monkeys in .poliomyelitis re search was not new. The tr.ansmission of a virus disease to monkeys had beeri known for the past 30 years- and a considerable amount of research on monkeys was done during the polio epi demic in 1925 in New Zealand. The reason for introdueing this form of research in the present attack on polio, was to test. suggestions which had beeu made c.oncerning special features of the epidemic as it. had occurred in the Wellington district.