IT was announced this month that an almost-extinct sub-species of chimpanzee - pan troglodytes troglodytes - had been identified as the original source of the HIV virus which causes Aids.

It appears that the virus passed from them to humans via hunters who killed the chimps for food.

The most important element of the discovery was that the virus, which wills so many humans, does not kill the chimps.

Many scientists believe that new treatments and vaccines for human patients could be found by studying why these chimps do not get Aids.

While no-one would deny the importance of attempts to stop the Aids pandemic, the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection believes that this latest discovery must not lead to more chimps being used in Aids research in the laboratory.

By 1996, 198 chimpanzees had been infected with HIV in US laboratories along although these animals almost never develop full-blown Aids.

After being infected, they are condemned to solitary confinement for life, which may be 60 years or more. During this time these highly intelligent, social animals may often become insane.

In the UK, experiments on chimps and other great apes are currently banned on the grounds that their qualities make it '...unethical to treat them as expendable for research.'

We hope that this acceptance of the value of chimps will come to be shared by other countries.

In the meantime, we would urge British scientists not to collaborate with foreign research teams using chimps in Aids research, and for the government and Aids charities not to participate in such research through funding.

After all, if chimps such as Trudy should not have to endure life in a circus, then why should they have to suffer in laboratories?

CHRISTINE ORR, British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, Crane Grove, London, N7.

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