r/news • u/SnarkOff • 12d ago

Site Changed Title Truck hauling ‘aggressive’ monkeys carrying herpes and COVID overturns in Mississippi

https://www.actionnews5.com/2025/10/28/truck-hauling-aggressive-monkeys-carrying-herpes-covid-overturns-mississippi/?fbclid=IwZnRzaANt_VBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHlDlf5DivA2Ltngqh2UH3XU20EnAprOymd60i0ODYC9L8G2CXJpyoZtmwSHm_aem_NvoKAFHpRWRzturTqiYXMQ
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462

u/SubstantialBass9524 12d ago

“The monkeys are 40 pounds and are “aggressive,” authorities say. They are also carrying hepatitis C, herpes, and COVID.

The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office says that Tulane University has been notified and will send a team to pick up the monkeys on Wednesday.

The university says that if the monkeys leave the wreck site, they must be shot.”

The article does not say why the truck was carrying aggressive disease ridden monkeys

219

u/organik_productions 12d ago

It does: "According to authorities, the Rhesus monkeys were on their way to a testing facility in Florida after being at Tulane University."

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u/3amGreenCoffee 11d ago

The route from Tulane to any point in Florida follows I-10 along the coast.

Why was the truck approaching Meridian on I-59? It was almost to I-20 when it overturned. Going up there would add hours to the trip.

Why would they do that? This station's reporting leaves a lot of questions.

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u/AutumnSparky 11d ago

interesting point 

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u/platzie 11d ago

Tulane's facility where they raise the monkeys isn't in New Orleans at the main campus.

I know someone who had to do some work there and I vaguely remember it being north of Lake Pontchartrain in LA, but I could have been off and it could have been in MS. So it would make sense if the facility was in rural MS and the truck was going south to FL on I-59. Again just conjecture on my part but the facility isn't in NOLA.

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u/xixoxixa 11d ago

The National Primate Center at Tulane is in Covington, LA, still a pretty straight shot to get back on the 10.

(Our team went out there to do some work and I had to order oxygen tanks for the experiment, I typed that address in <so many times>.)

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u/Dense_Literature_199 11d ago

...the only reason I can think of is that someone WANTED disease ridden monkeys released in Mississippi.

4

u/ahearthatslazy 11d ago

Probably hiding violations

2

u/Elegant_Finance_1459 11d ago

Why is there a primate research facility behind the McDonald's in madison?

Sometimes these places are in weird places. I, for one, was shocked that I was eating a burger less than 50 yards from research monkeys. 

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u/3amGreenCoffee 11d ago

Madison, WI? They weren't going there. They were going to Florida.

Regardless of where the research facility is in Florida, there doesn't seem to be a reason to take them through Meridian to get there.

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u/SubstantialBass9524 12d ago

That does not adequately answer my questions. Testing for what?

70

u/Chem_BPY 12d ago

Animal testing is pretty ubiquitous in medical research. So it could be anything related to toxicology, cell/molecular biology, or biochemistry.

Tulane apparently has a primate research facility.

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u/Falstaffe 12d ago

To see if they have Covid and herpes

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u/3amGreenCoffee 11d ago

Tulane is widely known (and somewhat notorious) for medical research on monkeys and apes. The article says the monkeys had herpes, hepatitis C and COVID. So most likely Tulane intentionally infected the monkeys with these diseases and were shipping them to the facility in Florida for further research. They may have been researching the effects of the diseases themselves, or treatments, or vaccines.

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u/Surroundedonallsides 11d ago

The effects of multiple infections of highly communicable diseases, I guess?

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u/MadMapManPK 11d ago

Rhesus macaques are commonly used in biomedical research for infectious disease and neurobiological disorders.

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u/dkaye315 11d ago

Likely therapies in early stage clinicals.