Some Recent NIH-Funded Experiments on Animals Conducted in Foreign Laboratories

The Cease Animal Research Grants Overseas (CARGO) Act (HR 1085) would save millions of taxpayer dollars and spare countless animals suffering and death in worthless experiments conducted in foreign laboratories. These are details about just a few experiments at overseas institutions recently funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The CARGO Act is commonsense legislation. Urge your U.S. representative to support it now!

2025

• In Canada, experimenters cut the vocal cords of 12 rabbits and inserted a spatula “several times to exacerbate inflammation and scarring to ensure adequate injury.”
  • Price tag: $442,177
  • McGill University, funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
  • Functional analysis of injectable substance treatment on surgically injured rabbit vocal folds. J. Voice. 2021

• In the U.K., experimenters subject mice to procedures to develop abnormal proteins in the animals’ brains.
  • Price tag: $799,700
  • University College London, National Institute on Aging
  • Systems genetics analysis of resilience to tauopathy in ADRD. [Grant]

• In Canada, experimenters subject pigs to lung transplants.
  • Price tag: $584,781
  • University Health Network , funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
  • Immunoengineering of donor lungs to optimize long-term graft function. [Grant]

• In Australia, experimenters infect animals with the parasite that causes toxoplasmosis, a disease characterized by fever, diarrhea, and seizures, among other symptoms.
  • Price tag: $504,409
  • The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research , funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
  • Regulation of latent stage differentiation through central carbon metabolism and ubiquitination.  [Grant]

2024

• In the U.K., experimenters surgically implant electrodes in monkeys’ arms and then damage their brains to strokes.
  • Price tag: $443,945
  • Newcastle University, funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
  • Locating the neural substrates for the flexor synergy after stroke. [Grant]

• In Argentina, experimenters infected mice with the parasite that causes Chagas disease, injected diphtheria toxin into their abdomens, killed them, and removed their spleens and livers.
  • Price tag: $133,400
  • Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
  • CD39 expression by regulatory T cells drives CD8+ T cell suppression during experimental Trypanosoma cruzi infection. 2023 [Preprint]

• In Canada, experimenters caused third-degree burns in mice by exposing 30% of their bodies to water heated to 95°C (203°F).
  • Price tag: $334,679
  • Hamilton Health Sciences Corporations, funded by the National Institute of Aging
  • Lactate shuttling drives the browning of white adipose tissue after burn. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2023

• In Canada, experimenters inject mice with cancerous cells to produce tumors.
  • Price tag: $352,374
  • University Health Network, funded by the National Cancer Institute
  • Mechanistic investigations of microbiome-driven aryl hydrocarbon receptor activity and macrophage function in pancreatic cancer. [Grant]

• In Canada, experimenters injected the prion that causes chronic wasting disease into the brains of female, transgenic mice and bank voles. “At terminal stage of disease, clinical mice and bank voles were exhibiting rigid tail, rough coat, gait abnormalities, ataxia, kyphosis, and cycles of weight loss and gain.”
  • Price tag: $261,900
  • University of Calgary, funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
  • Transmission of cervid prions to humanized mice demonstrates the zoonotic potential of CWD. Acta Neuropathol. 2022

• In South Africa, experimenters destroy mice’s immune system and infect the animals with a parasite that causes malaria.
  • Price tag: $279,425
  • University of Cape Town, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
  • Repurposing kinase inhibitor chemotypes as antimalarials. [Grant]

• In Sweden, experimenters inject substances into mice’s brains to induce inflammation, expose the animals to noise, and kill them.
  • Price tag: $149,716
  • Karolinska Institute, funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
  • Characterization of the cochlear aqueduct. [Grant]

• In Nigeria, experimenters give rats high-fat, high-carbohydrate, and high-protein diets, killed the animals, and removed their bladders.
  • Price tag: $101,502
  • The Federal University of Technology, funded by the John E. Fogarty International Center for Advanced Epigenetic influence of diet on bladder physiology. [Grant]

• In Sweden, experimenters test drugs on mice.
  • Price tag: $488,631
  • Karolinska Institute, funded by the National Institute on Aging
  • Repurposing drugs for Alzheimer´s disease using a reverse translational approach. [Grant]

• In Canada, experimenters injected experimental substances into mice’s tails, gassed them, and broke their necks.
  • Price tag: $487,746
  • Simon Fraser University, funded by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
  • A glycoside analog of mammalian oligomannose formulated with a TLR4-stimulating adjuvant elicits HIV-1 cross-reactive antibodies. Sci Rep. 2021

2023

• In Canada, experimenters gave young mice “recreational-like” and “Adderall-like” doses of amphetamines, injected viruses into their brains, and decapitated them weeks later.
  • Price tag: $258,140
  • McGill University, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse
  • Amphetamine disrupts dopamine axon growth in adolescence by a sex-specific mechanism in mice. Nat. Commun. 2023

• In Canada, experimenters injected brain or spinal cord tissue from a deer who died of chronic wasting disease (CWD) into the brains of female mice. Then, experimenters infected voles with feces and brain tissue obtained from the infected mice. Experimenters left the mice and voles to reach the “terminal stage of disease,” in which they experienced involuntary muscle twitching or jerking, “rigid tail, rough coat, gait abnormalities, ataxia [loss of muscle control], kyphosis [hunched back], and cycles of weight loss and gain.” Two of the mice were found dead. According to the grant submitted by the experimenters to NIH, they’re planning to infect monkeys, too.
  • Price tag: $270,000
  • University of Calgary, funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
  • Transmission of cervid prions to humanized mice demonstrates the zoonotic potential of CWD. Acta. Neuropathol. 2022

• In St. Kitts, West Indies, experimenters infect monkeys with the bacteria that causes typhus, whose symptoms include fever, muscle and joint pain, rash, headache, and fatigue. 
  • Price tag: $53,676
  • Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
  • Susceptibility of African green monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus) to Rickettsia felis, the agent of flea-borne spotted fever. [Grant]

• In France, experimenters cut open the skulls of mice, injected them with a virus, and implanted an optical cord in their brains. “From a total of 108, 43 mice were excluded from analysis due to incorrect virus injection or cannula placement.” Experimenters then subjected the mice to “behavioral testing” that included being suspended by their tails for six minutes. Then, the experimenters exposed the mice to light for three minutes and killed them. 
  • Price tag: $270,000
  • Inserm Strasbourg, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse
  • Habenular neurons expressing mu opioid receptors promote negative affect in a projection-specific manner. Biol. Psychiatry. 2023

• In Israel, experimenters subject mice and monkeys to whole-body radiation, which can cause anorexia, severe nausea, vomiting, cramps, and diarrhea as well as result in death due to infection and hemorrhage.
  • Price tag: $1,445,145
  • Pluri Inc., formerly known as Pluristem Therapeutics, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
  • Development of PLX-R18 cell therapy as a countermeasure for hematopoietic acute radiation syndrome. [Grant]

• In Canada, experimenters genetically modified mice’s embryos and took biopsies from mice’s ears.
  • Price tag: $53,477
  • University of Saskatchewan, funded by the National Institute of Aging
  • Jchain-DTR mice allow for diphtheria toxin-mediated depletion of antibody-secreting cells and evaluation of their differentiation kinetics. 2024 [Preprint]

• In India, experimenters genetically modify mice and make them suffer from diarrhea and gut inflammation.   
  • Price tag: $121,630
  • Indian Institute of Science, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
  • Mechanisms underlying diarrhea and gut inflammation mediated by enterotoxigenic and enteropathogenic E. coli. [Grant]

• In Canada, experimenters genetically modified mice, killed them, and removed their eyes.  
  • Price tag: $364,057
  • McMaster University, funded by the National Eye Institute
  • Deletion of transcription factor AP-2β from the developing murine trabecular meshwork region leads to progressive glaucomatous changes. J. Neurosci. Res.

• In Canada, experimenters burned mice over 20–30% of their bodies, cut open their stomachs to extract fat tissue, and transplanted the tissue into “recipient mice.” Three weeks later, the mice were killed.
  • Price tag: $658,451
  • Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation, funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences ($325,999) and the National Institute on Aging ($332,452)
  • Subcutaneous white adipose tissue independently regulates burn-induced hypermetabolism via immune-adipose crosstalk. Cell. Rep. 2024

2022

• In Australia, experimenters infect monkeys with tuberculosis.
  • Price tag: $2,453,560
  • University of Sydney, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
  • Advancing vaccine adjuvant research for tuberculosis (Avart-t). [Grant]

• In Canada, experimenters injected cancerous cells into immunocompromised female mice, subjected the animals to imaging procedures, and killed them by breaking their necks.
  • Price tag: $324,000
  • University of Western Ontario, funded by the NIH Office of Director
  • Imaging CAR-NK cells targeted to HER2 ovarian cancer with human sodium-iodide symporter-based positron emission tomography. Eur. J. Nucl. Med. Mol. Imaging. 2024

• In Canada, experimenters injected a substance into the brains of transgenic and wild-type female mice, which made them suffer from hypothermia.
  • Price tag: $289,509
  • University of Toronto, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse
  • Human CYP2D6 varies across the estrous cycle in brains of transgenic mice altering drug response. Prog. Neuropsychopharmacol. Biol. Psychiatry. 2024

• In the U.K., experimenters genetically modified zebra fish, administered them with substances, subjected the animals to behavioral tests to startle them and cause anxiety, and killed them.
  • Price tag: $419,015
  • Queen Mary University of London, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse
  • rbfox1 loss of function in zebrafish leads to dysregulation in bdnf/trkb2 and pac1a expression resulting in HPI axis hyperactivation, altered stress response and allostatic overload. 2025 [Preprint]

2021

• In the U.K., experimenters cut rats open, dissected their sciatic nerve, implanted electrodes, and killed the animals.
  • Price tag: $853,638
  • University College London, funded by the NIH Office of the Director
  • Simplifying the hardware requirements for fast neural EIT of peripheral nerves. Physiological Measurement. 2022
  • Fascicle localisation within peripheral nerves through evoked activity recordings: A comparison between electrical impedance tomography and multi-electrode arrays. J. Neurosci. Methods. 2021
  • Optimization of the electrode drive pattern for imaging fascicular compound action potentials in peripheral nerve with fast neural Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT). Physiol. Meas. 2019

• In Finland, experimenters restrain fully awake rats, implant more than 500 electrodes in their brains, and force the animals to live like this for months.
  • Price tag: $422,943
  • University of Helsinki, funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
  • Capturing large-scale locus coeruleus single neuron activity in behaving rats with nanoelectronic threads (NETs), an ultra-flexible multi-electrode probe. [Grant]

• In Chile, experimenters forced mice to drink alcohol, injected viral substances into their brains, and killed them.
  • Price tag: $166,212
  • Universidad de Concepción, funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
  • Overexpression of wild type glycine alpha 1 subunit rescues ethanol sensitivity in accumbal receptors and reduces binge drinking in mice. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2023

2020

• In Canada, experimenters manipulate cats’ genes to create leg deformities.
  • Price tag: $53,973
  • University of Calgary, funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
  • An animal model for identifying regulatory sequences of the human SHOX gene. [Grant]

• In Australia, experimenters inject monkeys with influenza vaccines.
  • Price tag: $3,532,876
  • Vaxine Pty Ltd, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
  • Advanced development of vaccine candidates for biodefense and emerging infectious diseases. [Grant]

• In Ireland, experimenters infected mice with bacterial endotoxin to make them sick, forced them to perform cognitive tests, and killed them.
  • Price tag: $153,231
  • Trinity College Dublin, funded by the National Institute on Aging
  • Susceptibility to acute cognitive dysfunction in aged mice is underpinned by reduced white matter integrity and microgliosis. Commun. Biol. 2024

2019

• In France, experimenters caused the pupils of mice and monkeys to become dilated and forced the animals to keep their eyes open while injecting a “viral vector solution” into their eyes “to create a bleb.” Other mice and monkeys’ pupils were also dilated, and they were forced to keep their eyes open for hours while being directly exposed to light. Experimenters also cut open the eyes of rats and monkeys, detached their retinas, and implanted a patch in their eyes. Rats used to test a patch material experienced “massive physical damage and inflammation in the surgery location and surrounding areas.” Finally, the experimenters removed all the animals’ eyes.
  • Price tag: $214,941
  • Fondation Voir et Entendre, funded by the National Eye Institute
  • Inducible nonhuman primate models of retinal degeneration for testing end-stage therapies. Sci. Adv. 2023

• In Germany, experimenters infect monkeys with simian immunodeficiency virus and other viruses.
  • Price tag: $178,041
  • Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
  • Global panel of non-human primate challenge viruses for standardized assessment of in vivo efficacy of HIV-1 Env antibodies. [Grant]

• In Canada, experimenters force-fed human feces to mice, then killed them and removed their brains.
  • Price tag: $633,250
  • McMaster University, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health
  • Transcriptional markers of excitation-inhibition balance in germ-free mice show region-specific dysregulation and rescue after bacterial colonization. J. Psychiatr. Res. 2021

2018

• In the U.K., experimenters addict rats to cocaine.
  • Price tag: $476,025
  • C4X Discovery Holdings PLC, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse
  • Preclinical development of a selective Orexin-1 receptor antagonist for treatment of cocaine addiction. [Grant]

2017

• In Canada, experimenters removed the eyes of baby mice.
  • Price tag: $267,961
  • University of British Columbia, funded by the National Eye Institute
  • Localization and functional characterization of the p.Asn965Ser (N965S) ABCA4 variant in mice reveal pathogenic mechanisms underlying Stargardt macular degeneration. Hum. Mol. Genet. 2018

• In Canada, experimenters caused strokes in rats and monkeys. Some animals died within 18 to 24 hours while others hemorrhaged between the brain and brain tissue.
  • Price tag: $846,905
  • University Health Network, funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
  • Plasmin-resistant PSD-95 inhibitors resolve effect-modifying drug-drug interactions between alteplase and nerinetide in acute stroke. Sci. Transl. Med. 2021

• In Tunisia, experimenters use rabbits as bait for sandflies.
  • Price tag: $112,335
  • Institut Pasteur de Tunis, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
  • Impact of zooprophylaxis on zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis transmission. [Grant]

• In Canada, experimenters electroshocked rats to induce “fear and anxiety,” drilled holes in their skulls, and implanted electrodes in their brains. Finally, they killed the animals.
  • Price tag: $154,967
  • The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health
  • Endocannabinoid modulating drugs improve anxiety but not the expression of conditioned fear in a rodent model of post-traumatic stress disorder. Neuropharmacology. 2020Prefrontal cortex deep brain stimulation improves fear and anxiety-like behavior and reduces basolateral amygdala activity in a preclinical model of posttraumatic stress disorder. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2018

2016

• In South Africa, experimenters infect monkeys with simian immunodeficiency virus—an illness in monkeys that’s not the same as HIV.
  • Price tag: $171,641
  • Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
  • Integrin a4b7 as a predictor of HIV acquisition and pathogenesis. [Grant]