Police have advised local residents not to approach the animals.
Residents of a town in South Carolina have been urged to avoid potentially infectious monkeys after 40 animals escaped from a nearby research facility.
The monkeys managed to escape from the Alpha Genesis Primate Research Center in Yemassee, approximately 60 miles (100km) southwest of Charleston, on Wednesday.
“Traps have been set up around the area, and the Yemassee Police Department is currently on-site utilizing thermal imaging cameras in an attempt to locate the animals,” the police stated on Wednesday evening. “Residents are strongly advised to keep doors and windows secured to prevent these animals from entering homes.”
Alpha Genesis utilizes the Yemassee facility to breed monkeys for medical research and testing. The company website indicates that it provides “nonhuman primate products and bio-research services.” These monkeys are subsequently used for clinical trials pertaining to a variety of diseases.
It remains unclear whether the primates involved in Wednesday’s escape had been test subjects or might carry some contagion. Consequently, authorities are urging extreme caution when dealing with these animals. Anyone encountering a monkey should refrain from interacting with it and instead contact the police, the Yemassee Sheriff’s Department advised.
Neither the police nor Alpha Genesis have disclosed the breeds of escaped primates. The company has worked with rhesus, macaque, and capuchin monkeys.
This incident marks the second mass monkey escape from Alpha Genesis in less than a decade, according to the local newspaper the Beaufour Post and Courier. In 2016, a total of 19 monkeys went missing for approximately six hours before being rounded up and returned.
In 2023, Alpha Genesis was contracted by the US government to manage ‘Monkey Island’, a monkey colony situated off the coast of South Carolina that is home to approximately 3,500 primates.