YEMASSEE, SOUTH CAROLINA / ACCESS Newswire / January 21, 2026 / Alpha Genesis Inc., the largest nonhuman primate breeding and research services organization in the United States, today announced the expansion of its long-term research animal retirement and lifetime care services. The program is designed to provide dignified, humane, and fiscally responsible lifelong care for nonhuman primates that have completed participation in biomedical research.
The announcement comes as multiple National Primate Research Centers and affiliated institutions face significant funding shortfalls that have impaired their ability to maintain aging nonhuman primate colonies. In response, proposals have emerged to relocate large numbers of animals to external sanctuaries, often supported by substantial federal expenditures.
Alpha Genesis cautions that while sanctuaries may be appropriate for small numbers of animals under limited circumstances, they are not designed to manage the scale, medical complexity, or duration of responsibility associated with hundreds or thousands of research animals entering retirement simultaneously.
"Nonhuman primate retirement is not simply a relocation exercise," said Dr. Greg Westergaard, Chief Executive Officer of Alpha Genesis. "It is a multi-decade obligation that requires continuous veterinary care, infectious disease control, behavioral management, physical infrastructure, regulatory compliance, and stable long-term funding. No sanctuaries were ever designed to deliver that level of care at national scale."
Unlike sanctuary models, Alpha Genesis operates large, purpose-built, USDA-licensed facilities with integrated veterinary hospitals, quarantine capacity, behavioral management programs, and deeply experienced professional staff. These systems have been developed and refined over decades to support long-term colony health and are continuously overseen under federal regulatory frameworks.
"Compassion alone does not guarantee outcomes," Dr. Westergaard said. "You need systems that are engineered for longevity. You need trained personnel who do this work every day. You need facilities that can support animals for the rest of their lives, not just for the next funding cycle."
Sanctuary environments are typically optimized for small populations and limited medical intervention and often rely on philanthropic or donor-dependent funding structures. Many lack the infrastructure, staffing depth, and financial durability required to support aging research animals with chronic disease, specialized nutritional needs, or lifelong clinical monitoring. Scaling these models rapidly introduces substantial risk to animal welfare and continuity of care.
"Moving large numbers of medically complex animals into settings that were never designed for that volume is not humane," Dr. Westergaard said. "It is well intentioned, but intention is not the same as capability."
From a cost perspective, Alpha Genesis stated that its scale enables significantly lower per-animal lifetime care costs compared with sanctuary-based alternatives. Centralized infrastructure, integrated veterinary services, and efficient husbandry operations allow resources to be deployed directly toward animal care rather than duplicated overhead.
"Taxpayer dollars should be spent caring for animals, not recreating parallel systems that already exist," Dr. Westergaard said. "When care is delivered through institutions designed for scale, the public gets better outcomes at lower cost."
Beyond animal welfare, Alpha Genesis emphasized the broader implications for United States biomedical research continuity and national preparedness. Maintaining retired research animals within the regulated research ecosystem preserves domestic capacity, institutional expertise, and biological resources that may be essential during future public health or biodefense emergencies.
"Research readiness is built over decades and can be lost very quickly," Dr. Westergaard said. "Once animals and experienced care teams are removed from licensed research environments, rebuilding that capacity can take many years and billions of dollars. In some cases, it may not be possible at all."
The company noted that retaining animals within regulated facilities supports continuity of care while avoiding irreversible erosion of national capability. Animals remain under professional oversight with consistent veterinary care, regulatory compliance, and long-term planning.
"Our responsibility does not end when a study ends," Dr. Westergaard said. "It extends for the lifetime of the animal. The question is whether we meet that responsibility with systems designed for scale and durability, or whether we fragment it into models that cannot realistically sustain it."
Alpha Genesis emphasized that its research animal retirement program is not intended to eliminate the role of sanctuaries in all contexts, but rather to address the reality that national scale challenges require solutions built for national scale.
"Sanctuaries play a role in specific circumstances," Dr. Westergaard said. "But when the challenge is measured in thousands of animals and decades of care, the solution must be grounded in infrastructure, experience, and financial sustainability."
Alpha Genesis has begun engaging with research institutions and government stakeholders to offer structured, transparent transfer pathways for animals entering retirement, with clearly defined care standards and long term cost planning.
"At its core, this is about responsibility," Dr. Westergaard concluded. "Responsibility to the animals, responsibility to the scientific enterprise, and responsibility to the public that depends on both."
Contact:
Greg Westergaard, PhD
Founder and CEO
+1 (843) 589-5190
gwprimate@alphagenesisinc.com
SOURCE: Alpha Genesis, Inc.
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/healthcare-and-pharmaceutical/alpha-genesis-announces-research-animal-retirement-and-lifetime-care-1129240
