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(CNN Business) --
Elon Musk's brain implant company Neuralink, whose goal is to get brains to connect and communicate with computers, has acknowledged that monkeys were killed as part of its testing procedures, but denies allegations of cruelty. animal.
In a blog post on its website, Neuralink addressed "recent articles" that have "raised questions about Neuralink's use of research animals at the University of California, Davis Primate Center" (UC Davis ) and said that "all novel medical devices and treatments must be tested on animals before they can be ethically tested on humans."
Neuralink has used macaque monkeys in its tests, as the company has been developing implantable Bluetooth-enabled chips, inserted into the monkeys' brains, which the company says can communicate with computers via a tiny receiver.
In April of last year, Neuralink claimed that monkeys can play the computer game Pong, using only their minds.
For demonstration purposes, he posted a video of Pager, a male macaque, moving a cursor on the screen without using a joystick.
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According to the company, this was achieved after the Neuralink chip fed information from the monkey's neurons into a decoder, which was then used to predict Pager's hand movements, allowing the decoder's output to be used to move the cursor, instead of Pager manipulating the joystick.
Neuralink's statement comes after the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a US non-profit organization that advocates for alternatives to animal testing, sent a letter to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA, for its acronym in English) in which it referred to violations and requested an investigation into what it called "apparent egregious violations of the Animal Welfare Act related to the treatment of monkeys used in invasive brain experiments".
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The document says that the experiments were carried out under contractual agreements between UC Davis and Neuralink.
In the letter, which spans more than 700 pages, the Physicians Committee said the records it obtained from the 23 monkeys used in the experiments reflect a "pattern of extreme suffering and negligence by staff."
The committee said the letter to USDA is based on nearly 600 pages of what it calls "disturbing" documents released after the committee filed an initial public records lawsuit in 2021.
The Physicians Committee said in a news release on Feb. 10 that UC Davis received more than $1.4 million in Neuralink funding to conduct the experiments with the macaque monkeys.
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CNN has contacted UC Davis and the Board of Governors for comment.
In a statement to KCRA 3, UC Davis spokesman Andy Fell said, "The research protocols were thoroughly reviewed and approved by the campus Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)."
Fell added, "The work was conducted by Neuralink researchers at the California National Primate Research Center facility at UC Davis. Veterinary care was provided by UC Davis staff, including supervision of experimental animals during 24 hours a day. When an incident occurred, it was reported to the IACUC, which ordered the necessary training and protocol changes."
Elon Musk's company Neuralink denies allegations of animal cruelty in its testing procedures.
On February 10, the Physicians Committee says it filed a second public records lawsuit to force the university to release videos and photos of the monkeys.
Neuralink is not part of the lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, the committee alleges that university personnel "removed pieces from the skulls of rhesus macaque monkeys and inserted electrodes into the animals' brains."
The suit alleges that the monkeys did not receive proper veterinary care and that an "unapproved substance" known as BioGlue "killed the monkeys by destroying parts of their brains."
On the Neuralink blog, the company said there was "a surgical complication related to the use of the FDA-approved product (BioGlue)," and the monkey was euthanized.
In the lawsuit, the committee further claims that the University of California has refused to release photos and videos of the experiments, claiming that the records belong to Neuralink, a private company not subject to the California Public Records Act.
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In a statement posted on Neuralink's website, Neuralink said the company is "absolutely committed to working with animals in the most humane and ethical way possible."
It also said its "core mission is to design an animal care program with animal needs first, rather than the typical strategy of building only for human convenience."
Neuralink said that "the use of each animal was extensively planned and considered to balance scientific discovery with the ethical use of animals."
In reference to the euthanasia claims by the Physicians Committee, Neuralink stated that "two animals were euthanized on planned end dates to collect important histological data, and six animals were euthanized on medical advice from UC Davis veterinary staff."
Neuralink said it made the decision to partner with UC Davis in 2017 to conduct the animal-based research.
In 2020, Musk's company opened a 6,000-square-foot in-house vivarium to house farm animals and rhesus macaques, according to the Neuralink statement.
Neuralink said in the statement that it "is never satisfied with current animal welfare standards and we will always strive to do more for the animals that contribute so much to humanity."
Jeremy Beckham, research promotion coordinator for the Physicians Committee, said in the news release that the documents used by the committee in its letter to the USDA "reveal that monkeys had their brains mutilated in shoddy experiments and He let them suffer and die."
Neuralink has previously said that the goal of its research was to enable a paralyzed person to be able to use a device such as a computer or a phone using only their brain activity.
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