Harvard Medical School Says It's Not to Blame for Monkey Deaths At Oregon Zoo

Harvard Medical School released a statement this afternoon, saying the endangered monkeys it shipped in a van to the Oregon Zoo "arrived safely and in good condition."

Six of the nine cotton-top tamarins died in the zoo's quarantine on May 24. Documents first reported today by WW show the monkeys died after traveling more than 50 hours in a van, and spent their final days in plastic picnic coolers zoo officials gave them as nests.

Gina Vild, chief communications officer for Harvard Medical School, sent a statement to WW defending the shipment of monkeys by van, along with records showing the monkeys were in good condition throughout the trip.

"The standard and safest method of transporting nonhuman primates in North America is through experienced ground carriers," the statement says.

Harvard Medical School also gave WW a letter sent to its officials by the Oregon Zoo's head primate keeper Jennifer Davis, speculating that the plastic coolers might have killed the monkeys with "some sort of off-gassing like effect."

Harvard's copy of Davis' May 28 letter redacts her name but identifies her by her title, "curator of primates and Africa." She suggests that the monkeys that died had spent more time in the coolers than the ones that lived.

"They had been fully cleaned and disinfected and dried," Davis writes of the coolers. "Perhaps there was some sort of off-gassing like effect? Coolers certainly smell weird all on their own. It's just all speculation and questions at this point."

Harvard University had been widely reported as the donor of the monkeys to the Oregon Zoo, but the school and the zoo had refused until now to confirm where the monkeys came from.

Here is the full statement from Harvard Medical School:

WWeek 2015