Chimpanzees, who have served an important role in advancing human health in the past, will no longer be goaded, poked and examined in US research labs, as they may soon be offered retirement in leafy sanctuaries.   A majority of the chimps used for research by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), America’s foremost medical research agency, should be retired, a government panel concluded.

The institute will no longer fund studies involving chimpanzees, as it prepares to revise its policies.

Based on its deliberations in 2010, the Institute of medicine (IOM) committee had concluded that “while the chimpanzee has been a valuable animal model in past research, most current use of chimpanzees for biomedical research is unnecessary.”