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| Mark Lewis was desperate to find monkeys. Millions of human lives, all over the world, were at stake. |
| 马克·刘易斯(Mark Lewis)急着寻找猴子。这关系到全世界数百万人的生命。 |
| Mr. Lewis, the chief executive of Bioqual, was responsible for providing lab monkeys to pharmaceutical companies like Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, which needed the animals to develop their Covid-19 vaccines. But as the coronavirus swept across the United States last year, there were few of the specially bred monkeys to be found anywhere in the world. |
| Bioqual的首席执行官刘易斯负责为莫德纳(Moderna)和强生(Johnson＆Johnson)等制药公司提供实验室猴子，这些药企需要它们来研发新冠疫苗。但是，去年新冠病毒席卷美国，在世界各地都很难弄到这种特殊培育的猴子。 |
| Unable to furnish scientists with monkeys, which can cost more than $10,000 each, about a dozen companies were left scrambling for research animals at the height of the pandemic. |
| 由于无法向科学家提供每只售价都超过1万美元的猴子，大约有十几家公司在疫情最严重的时候到处寻找实验室动物。 |
| “We lost work because we couldn’t supply the animals in the time frame,” Mr. Lewis said. |
| 刘易斯说：“我们失去了订单，因为我们无法在规定的时间内供应这种动物。” |
| The world needs monkeys, whose DNA closely resembles that of humans, to develop Covid-19 vaccines. But a global shortage, resulting from the unexpected demand caused by the pandemic, has been exacerbated by a recent ban on the sale of wildlife from China, the leading supplier of the lab animals. |
| 世界需要猴子来开发新冠疫苗，它们的DNA与人类非常相似。但是，由于大流行引起的意外需求导致全球供应的短缺，又因中国最近出售野生动物的禁令而加剧。中国是这种实验室动物的主要供应者。 |
| The latest shortage has revived talk about creating a strategic monkey reserve in the United States, an emergency stockpile similar to those maintained by the government for oil and grain. |
| 最近的供应短缺再次引发了关于在美国建立战略性猴子储备的讨论，这类似于政府保持的石油和谷物储备。 |
| As new variants of the coronavirus threaten to make the current batch of vaccines obsolete, scientists are racing to find new sources of monkeys, and the United States is reassessing its reliance on China, a rival with its own biotech ambitions. |
| 由于新冠病毒的新变种有可能使目前的疫苗无效，科学家争相寻找新的猴子来源，美国也在重新评估对中国——一个拥有自己生物技术雄心的竞争对手的依赖。 |
| The pandemic has underscored how much China controls the supply of lifesaving goods, including masks and drugs, that the United States needs in a crisis. |
| 这场大流行突显出中国在相当程度上控制着美国在危机中需要的救生物资的供应，包括口罩和药物。 |
| American scientists have searched private and government-funded facilities in Southeast Asia as well as Mauritius, a tiny island nation off southeast Africa, for stocks of their preferred test subjects, rhesus macaques and cynomolgus macaques, also known as long-tailed macaques. |
| 在东南亚以及非洲东南部小岛国毛里求斯，美国科学家在私人和政府资助的设施中寻找首选的实验对象储备——恒河猴和食蟹猕猴（也称为长尾猕猴）。 |
| But no country can make up for what China previously supplied. Before the pandemic, China provided over 60 percent of the 33,818 primates, mostly cynomolgus macaques, imported into the United States in 2019, according to analyst estimates based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. |
| 但是没有一个国家可以填补中国的空缺。分析人士根据美国疾病控制与预防中心的数据估算，在大流行之前，2019年美国进口的33818只以食蟹猕猴为主的灵长类动物中，60％以上来自中国。 |
| The United States has as many 25,000 lab monkeys — predominantly pink-faced rhesus macaques — at its seven primate centers. About 600 to 800 of those animals have been subject to coronavirus research since the pandemic began. |
| 美国的七个灵长类动物中心拥有多达2.5万只实验猴，其中主要是粉脸的恒河猴。其中约600至800只猴子在大流行开始后被用在新冠病毒研究。 |
| Scientists say monkeys are the ideal specimens for researching coronavirus vaccines before they are tested on humans. The primates share more than 90 percent of our DNA, and their similar biology means they can be tested with nasal swabs and have their lungs scanned. Scientists say it is almost impossible to find a substitute to test Covid-19 vaccines in, although drugs such as dexamethasone, the steroid that was used to treat President Donald J. Trump, has been tested in hamsters. |
| 科学家说，在进行人体实验之前，猴子是研究新冠病毒疫苗的理想标本。灵长类动物和我们的DNA有90％以上的相似之处，它们的相似生物学特性意味着可以用鼻拭子进行测试并进行肺部扫描。科学家说，几乎不可能用其他动物来测试新冠疫苗，尽管地塞米松——用于治疗唐纳德·J·特朗普(Donald J. Trump)总统的类固醇——等药物使用了仓鼠做实验。 |
| The United States once relied on India to supply rhesus macaques. But in 1978, India halted its exports after the Indian press reported that the monkeys were being used in military testing in the United States. Pharmaceutical companies searched for an alternative. |
| 美国曾经依靠印度来供应恒河猴。但是在1978年，在印度媒体报道说猴子在美国被用于军事实验后，印度停止了出口。制药公司寻找替代方案。 |
| Eventually, they landed on China. |
| 最终，他们找了中国。 |
| The pandemic upset what had been a decades-long relationship between American scientists and Chinese suppliers. |
| 而这场大流行颠覆了美国科学家与中国供应商之间长达数十年的关系。 |
| “When the China market closed down, that just forced everyone to go to a smaller number of available animals,” said Mr. Lewis. |
| 刘易斯说：“当中国市场关上了门，这只会迫使大家去买数量更少的可供选择的动物。” |
| For years, several airlines, including the major American carriers, have also refused to transport animals used in medical research because of opposition from animal rights activists. |
| 多年来，由于动物权利活动人士的反对，包括美国主要航空公司在内的几家航司也拒绝运输用于医学研究的动物。 |
| In the meantime, the price for a cynomolgus monkey has more than doubled from a year ago to well over $10,000, Mr. Lewis said. Scientists researching cures for other diseases, including Alzheimer’s and AIDS, say their work has been delayed as priority for the animals goes to coronavirus researchers. |
| 刘易斯说，与此同时，食蟹猴的价格比一年前增加了一倍以上，大大超出1万美元。研究包括阿尔茨海默氏病和艾滋病在内的其他疾病的科学家说，由于该动物被优先用于新冠病毒研究，他们的工作已被延迟。 |
| The shortage has led a growing number of American scientists to call on the government to ensure a constant supply of the animals. |
| 短缺导致越来越多的美国科学家呼吁政府确保持续供应这种动物。 |
| Skip Bohm, the associate director and chief veterinary medical officer at the Tulane National Primate Research Center outside New Orleans, said the discussion for a strategic monkey reserve started about 10 years ago among the directors of the national primate research centers. But a stockpile was never created because of the amount of money and time needed to build a breeding program. |
| 新奥尔良郊外的杜兰国家灵长类动物研究中心(Tulane National Primate Research Center)副主任兼首席兽医官斯基普·鲍姆(Skip Bohm)说，大约10年前，国家灵长类动物研究中心的主管们开始就战略性猴子储备展开讨论。但是由于建立育种计划需要大量的金钱和时间，所以从未建立起储备。 |
| “Our idea was sort of like the strategic oil reserve, in that there’s lots and lots of fuel somewhere that is only tapped in an emergency,” Professor Bohm said. |
| “我们的想法有点像战略石油储备，我们在一些地方存放着大量的燃料，只有在紧急情况下才会动用，”鲍姆说。 |
| But as new variants of the virus are discovered, potentially restarting the race for a vaccine, scientists say the government needs to take action on the stockpile immediately. |
| 但是科学家说，随着病毒新变种的发现，疫苗竞赛可能重启，政府需要立即对库存采取行动。 |
| “The strategic monkey reserve is exactly what we needed to deal with Covid, and we just didn’t have it,” said Keith Reeves, a principal investigator at the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Harvard Medical School. |
| 哈佛医学院(Harvard Medical School)病毒学和疫苗研究中心首席研究员基思·里夫斯(Keith Reeves)表示：“猴子的战略储备正是我们应对新冠病毒所需要的，可我们就是没有。” |
| But a robust strategic reserve might still be unable to meet the skyrocketing demand for lab animals, as researchers in China have learned. Even with a government-controlled stockpile of about 45,000 monkeys, researchers in China say they are also grappling with a shortage. |
| 但是，正如中国研究人员所了解到的，强大的战略储备可能仍然无法满足对实验室动物急剧增长的需求。中国研究人员表示，尽管有政府控制的约4.5万只猴子的库存，但他们也在努力应对猴子短缺的问题。 |
| Researchers often collect hundreds of specimens from a single monkey, whose tissues can be frozen for years and studied over long periods. The scientists say they make the most of each animal, but monkeys infected with Covid-19 cannot be returned to live among other healthy animals and must be eventually euthanized. |
| 研究人员经常从一只猴子身上收集数百份标本，这些组织可以冷冻数年，并进行长期研究。科学家们表示，他们会充分利用每只动物，但感染新冠的猴子不能回到其他健康动物之间继续生活，最终必须被实施安乐死。 |
| In January, Shen Weiguo, general manager of the Shanghai Technology Venture Capital Group, told local legislators that three large biomedical companies in the city were short 2,750 research monkeys last year, according to a report in the state news media. The shortfall is expected to grow 15 percent annually over the next five years, Mr. Shen said. |
| 据官方新闻媒体报道，今年1月，上海科技创业投资集团总经理沈伟国告诉当地人大代表，该市三家大型生物医药公司去年短缺2750只研究用猴。沈伟国说，在未来五年里，这一缺口预计每年增长15%。 |
| Hubei Topgene Biotechnology raises monkeys for its own research and for export. The United States was previously its top export destination, but the company currently does not have enough animals to conduct its own experiments, said Yan Shuo, a sales manager. |
| 湖北天勤生物科技公司饲养猴子是为了自己的研究和出口。此前，美国是其最大的出口目的地，但该公司目前已经没有足够的动物来进行自己的实验，销售经理严朔说。 |
| “Now, it’s not even a matter of money,” Mr. Yan said. “We don’t even have monkeys to sell abroad.” |
| “现在不是多少钱的问题，”严朔说。“现在没有动物可以对外卖。” |
| The United States maintains seven national primate research centers, where the animals, when not undergoing research, live in colonies with access to the outdoors and enrichment activities. The facilities are affiliated with research universities and funded by the National Institutes of Health. Animal rights activists have long accused the centers of abuse, including separating babies from their mothers. |
| 美国有七个国家灵长类动物研究中心，这些动物在不接受研究的时候，都过着可接触户外、内容丰富的群居生活。这些设施隶属研究型大学，由国家卫生研究院资助。动物权利活动人士长期以来一直指责这些中心存在虐待行为，包括将幼崽与母亲分开。 |
| Matthew R. Bailey, president of the National Association for Biomedical Research, said he was preparing to raise the monkey shortage with the Biden administration. He said China’s decision to halt exports at the beginning of the pandemic was “likely a prudent emergency move,” but he suggested that China could restart exports given what is now known about how the virus is spread. |
| 美国国家生物医学研究协会(National Association for Biomedical Research)主席马修·R·贝利(Matthew R. Bailey)表示，他准备向拜登政府提出猴子短缺的问题。他说，中国在疫情开始时停止出口的决定“可能是一个谨慎的紧急举措”，但他表示，鉴于目前对病毒传播方式的了解，中国可以重启出口。 |
| China’s Foreign Ministry said the ban was not targeted at specific species or countries. |
| 中国外交部表示，该禁令并非针对特定物种或国家。 |
| “Once the international situation improves and the conditions for imports and exports are met,” the ministry said in a statement, “China will actively consider resuming import and export approval and other related work.” |
| “一旦国际形势好转，具备进出口的条件，中方会积极考虑恢复进出口审批等相关工作，”该部门在声明中表示。 |
| Experts said the United States had to bear some responsibility for not having enough research monkeys. |
| 专家表示，美国要为没有足够的研究用猴承担一定责任。 |
| The budgets at the national primate centers have either stayed flat or fallen for well over a decade. Koen Van Rompay, an infectious diseases expert at the California National Primate Research Center, said the federal government asked the center to expand its breeding colonies about 10 years ago but did not give it increased funding, so it downsized its colony instead. |
| 十多年来，国家灵长类动物研究中心的预算要么持平，要么下降。加州国家灵长类动物研究中心(California National Primate Research Center)传染病专家考恩·范隆佩(Koen Van Rompay)说，联邦政府在大约10年前要求该中心扩大其繁殖群，但是没有给它更多的资金，所以它反而缩小了繁殖群的规模。 |
| “What we did in a number of cases was that we gave our females birth control,” Dr. Van Rompay said. “So there would be fewer babies born in the spring.” |
| “我们在一些情况下采取了避孕措施，”范隆佩说。“所以春天出生的幼崽会更少。” |
| At a panel organized by the National Institutes of Health in December 2018, scientists discussed the challenges facing America’s primate supply. There was an awareness then that “if China decides to turn off the spigot, we will be in deep trouble,” said Jeffrey Roberts, the associate director of the California National Primate Research Center. |
| 在国家卫生研究院2018年12月组织的一次研讨会上，科学家们讨论了美国灵长类动物供应面临的挑战。加州国家灵长类动物研究中心副主任杰弗里·罗伯茨(Jeffrey Roberts)说，当时人们意识到，“如果中国决定停止供应，我们就有大麻烦了。” |
| Attendees “agreed that the need to domestically breed cynomolgus macaques is essential and could jeopardize biomedical research in the United States as a whole, if not met,” according to a report of the meeting. “They emphasized that it may already be too late to address this need but will certainly be too late within a few months.” |
| 与会者“一致认为，国内培育食蟹猴至关重要，如果不能满足，可能危及整个美国的生物医学研究，”会议报告写道。“他们强调说，现在解决这种需求可能已经晚了，但过几个月肯定就太晚了。” |
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