OHSU Primate Center Plagued by Dangerous Antibiotic-Resistant Pathogen, TB, and Other Zoonotic Disease

For Immediate Release:
March 25, 2025

Contact:
Tasgola Bruner 202-483-7382

Portland –

As Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) seeks an $8 billion merger with Portland’s Legacy Health system, PETA warns the Oregon Health Authority that the university’s primate center has failed to control the spread of potentially deadly pathogens among the more than 5,000 monkeys it breeds, confines, or imports.

Monkeys harboring the highly dangerous vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (VRSA) and tuberculosis have been introduced into OHSU’s colony, posing a serious risk to staff and potentially exposing the university to significant liability. Vancomycin remains one of the first-line drugs for the treatment of MRSA infections. Additionally, according to published papers, for decades, OHSU failed to recognize that a zoonotic form of diphtheria was circulating among the monkeys born and bred at its facility, putting workers at risk of infection.

“The university wants to run Portland hospitals but has failed to protect staff and animals in its care from deadly pathogens—this should set off alarm bells for Legacy Health patients,” says PETA Senior Science Advisor Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel. “With a hospital merger on the line, the primate center’s ongoing disease risks should heighten regulatory scrutiny and trigger stricter oversight from state and federal agencies.”

Public records have long documented careless handling, inadequate veterinary care, and workers drinking alcohol on the job at the primate center. It was so short-staffed in 2022 and 2023 that it had to request special exemptions for sanitizing monkeys’ cages only half as often as required under federal law. All this increases the risk of zoonotic transmission—an urgent concern because of the potential for staff movement between the primate center and hospitals. These conditions aren’t likely to improve with National Institutes of Health funding cuts on the horizon.

*Four young macaques huddled together on PVC pipes in a dirty enclosure at the Oregon National Primate Research Center. Credit: PETA investigation*

The university has a long history of violating the federal Animal Welfare Act and was recently cited for allowing an infant monkey to be crushed to death by a heavy steel guillotine-style door in front of her frantic mother. In 2022, the school was fined $37,900 for nine serious violations, including an incident in which two monkeys were scalded to death when staff left them in a cage sent through a high-temperature cage washer. PETA’s video investigation into the primate center revealed inadequate veterinary care, workers chasing terrified monkeys, and monkeys forced to pick their food out of waste trays beneath their cages.

The national primate research centers—there are six others around the country—receive hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars every year for experiments that include prying baby monkeys away from their mothers, electroshocking primates’ penises, forcing them to inhale tobacco smoke, and injecting them with deadly pathogens. Yet after 60 years, the cruel tests haven’t delivered the promised vaccines for HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and more.

PETA scientists’ Research Modernization Now provides evidence of the failure of studies on animals and lays out a strategy for transitioning to cutting-edge, non-animal methodologies.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kitsfor people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.