Missing monkey is found after 100 escape in Pennsylvania highway crash

Enclosed wooden crates are scattered across the westbound lanes of state Route 54 near Danville, Pa.
Wood crates holding reside monkeys are scattered throughout the westbound lanes of state Route 54 close to Danville, Pa., on Friday after a pickup pulling a trailer carrying about 100 monkeys was hit by a dump truck.
(Jimmy Could / Bloomsburg [Pa.] Press Enterprise)

The final of 100 escaped monkeys from the crash of a truck towing a trailer load of the animals was accounted for by late Saturday, a day after the pickup collided with a dump truck on a Pennsylvania freeway, authorities mentioned.

A number of monkeys had escaped following Friday’s collision, Pennsylvania State Police mentioned. However just one had remained unaccounted for as of Saturday morning, prompting the Pennsylvania Sport Fee and different companies to launch a seek for it amid frigid climate.

Police had urged individuals to not search for or seize any monkey, with troopers tweeting: “Anybody who sees or locates the monkey is requested to not strategy, try and catch, or are available contact with the monkey. Please name 911 instantly.”

Trooper Lauren Lesher had mentioned the priority was “attributable to it not being a domesticated animal and them being in an unknown territory. It's laborious to say how they'd react to a human approaching them.”

Lesher mentioned state police secured the scene for the Pennsylvania Division of Well being and the CDC.

Kristen Nordlund, a spokesperson with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, mentioned in an e-mail Saturday night that each one 100 of the cynomolgus macaque monkeys had since been accounted for. Three have been useless after being euthanized.

The e-mail didn't elaborate on why the three have been euthanized or how all got here to be accounted for. However Nordlund mentioned these euthanized have been executed so humanely in keeping with American Veterinary Medical Affiliation pointers.

The cargo of monkeys was en path to a CDC-approved quarantine facility after arriving Friday morning at New York’s Kennedy Airport from Mauritius, an Indian Ocean island nation, police mentioned. The Atlanta-based CDC mentioned the company was offering “technical help” to state police in Pennsylvania.

The collision occurred on a state freeway close to an Interstate 80 exit in Pennsylvania’s Montour County, Trooper Andrea Pelachick informed the Every day Merchandise newspaper of Sunbury.

The placement of the quarantine facility and the kind of analysis for which the monkeys have been apparently destined weren’t clear, however cynomolgus monkeys are sometimes utilized in medical research. A 2015 paper posted on the web site of the Nationwide Heart for Biotechnology Info referred to them as probably the most extensively used primate in preclinical toxicology research.

The situation of the motorists concerned within the crash wasn’t clear, nor was it instantly identified whether or not any citations have been issued.

A crash witness, Michelle Fallon, informed the Press Enterprise newspaper of Bloomsburg, Pa., that she spoke with the pickup driver and a passenger after the crash. The motive force gave the impression to be disoriented, and the passenger thought he may need injured his legs, she mentioned.

Crates littered the street Friday as troopers carrying rifles looked for monkeys. Valley Township firefighters used thermal imaging to attempt to discover the animals, and a helicopter additionally assisted, the Press Enterprise reported.

The pickup was heading west on I-80 when it acquired off on the Danville exit after which instantly tried to get again on, driving throughout the opposite lane, the newspaper reported.

Fallon informed the Press Enterprise that she was behind the pickup when it was hit on the passenger’s aspect by the dump truck, tearing off the entrance panel of the trailer and sending greater than a dozen crates tumbling out.

She and one other motorist who stopped to assist have been standing close to the scene when the opposite driver mentioned he thought he noticed a cat run throughout the street, Fallon mentioned.

Fallon peeked right into a crate and noticed a small monkey trying again at her, she informed the newspaper.

“They’re monkeys,” she informed the opposite motorist.

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