Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff Lauren Bogle bam here. In the nineteen forties, America was under a constant threat from polio, a disease that had a then unknown cause and devastating effects, especially in children. It spread quickly through unclean water and unwashed hands, leading to symptoms like nausea, fatigue, fever, and the stiffening
of the body. Summers, especially sausages, and infections, particularly around swimming holes, leading to post polio paralysis and in some cases death. On average, thirty five thousand people were disabled each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was among the most notable people to get the condition, putting a face to a still
uncertain disease. A vaccine was desperately needed as scientists learned about the transmission process, including the fact that anyone could be a carrier. In the next few years, rival scientists Jonas Salk and Albert Saban worked with teams in their labs on two completely different vaccines. Saban worked on an oral vaccine, while Sulk created an injectable vaccine using a
killed version of Polio. In the book Polio, An American Story, David m Oshinsky writes about the urgency of Salk's work during the time, quote for Sealk, there was reason to hurry. The year nineteen fifty two was the worst polio year on record, with more than fifty seven thousand cases nationwide. The headlines screamed of plague season and polio time. Twenty one thousand victims suffered permanent paralysis, and about three thousand died.
From the very beginning of the polio epidemic, monkeys were considered to be essential for research before human trials could take place, becoming the unsung heroes of the fight to defeat the disease. It was through animal research that scientists first discovered that there were three strains of the deadly disease. The monkeys were purchased at a high cost from India
and the Philippines and shipped to the United States. Many died in transit, so the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, now known as the March of Dimes, began overseeing their import In nineteen forty nine, a foundation established a special facility known as ok Tee Farms in rural South Carolina to process the monkeys arriving from abroad. Ok Tee Farms operated in the Pyney Colony area of Beaufort County in
coastal South Carolina. Originally called the Pritchardville Primate Center, the forty acre or sixteen hectar a tract of land along the river, was called by local newspapers the Ellis Island for thousands of monkeys from India. Naturalist John Hamlet had the job of finding a space for the primate center that was both connected to deep water ports and airports,
but also remote enough from neighbors. The area he shows closely approximated the natural habitats of the monkeys, with its abundance of shady long leaf pines and a mild climate. The monkeys were originally brought into Savannah, Georgia, one of the region's biggest ports, and taken by truck the thirty
odd miles or fifty some kilometers to the farm. When air travel became more popular, they were flown via London in New York before traveling by train to the low Country, But once they arrived at the farm, veterinarians treated the two thousand or so rhesus and synomologous monkeys before clearing them for transport to research facilities around the country. The monkeys spent twenty one days getting acclimated and eating a
special diet was scientists carefully monitoring their status. Many went to Selks facility in Pittsburgh and Sabin's in an arbor, where they were given vaccines to test the vaccine's strength against the three strains of poliovirus. A few locals were aware of the research that was going on at the farm.
Despite rumors of people encountering the animals, we were unable to discover any opposition to the research facility, perhaps because it was not well known, and also because opposition to using animals and testing was not very common at the time in the United States. The movement against animal testing didn't pick up steam until around nineteen eighty. In any case, the farm's purpose wasn't permanent. One Sal's polio vaccine was deemed success and released to the public in nineteen fifty five.
The work of Okte Farms was no longer necessary, and the facility closed in nineteen fifty nine. H Saban's oral vaccine came into use in nineteen sixty one. The foundation that had established the facility turned its attention to reducing premature births. The monkeys found new homes and labs across the country. According to a former employee named Louise Crawford, things that the farm were left just as they were, including the monkey cages. Caretaker kept the grass in plant
life at bay. The lab was locked up ready for someone new to take on the important task of preparing monkeys for research, but that day never came. In nineteen eighty, the land and its contents were sold to a development group. The lab equipment was donated to a local school science department, while a farmer claimed the former monkey cages for his own animals. Today, the acreage along the oak Ti River
is mostly residential and privately owned. Thanks to Selks and Saban's vaccines, polio cases of plummeted from three fifty thousand to just twenty two. Animal testing is still considered objectionable in many settings, such as the cosmetics industry, but it is an important final step in some medical testing before
treatment is attempted with human patients. Hopefully, in the future, medical technologies like lab grown organs and advanced computing will allow scientists to avoid the practice altogether, but for now, it saves countless lives. Today's episode was written by Caroline Eubanks and produced by Tyler Clang. For more in this a lots of other topics, visit hous stufforks dot com.
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