Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Bogle bam here. In the nineteen forties,
Speaker 1: America was under a constant threat from polio, a disease
Speaker 1: that had a then unknown cause and devastating effects, especially
Speaker 1: in children. It spread quickly through unclean water and unwashed hands,
Speaker 1: leading to symptoms like nausea, fatigue, fever, and the stiffening
Speaker 1: of the body. Summers, especially sausages, and infections, particularly around
Speaker 1: swimming holes, leading to post polio paralysis and in some
Speaker 1: cases death. On average, thirty five thousand people were disabled
Speaker 1: each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Speaker 1: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was among the most notable people
Speaker 1: to get the condition, putting a face to a still
Speaker 1: uncertain disease. A vaccine was desperately needed as scientists learned
Speaker 1: about the transmission process, including the fact that anyone could
Speaker 1: be a carrier. In the next few years, rival scientists
Speaker 1: Jonas Salk and Albert Saban worked with teams in their
Speaker 1: labs on two completely different vaccines. Saban worked on an
Speaker 1: oral vaccine, while Sulk created an injectable vaccine using a
Speaker 1: killed version of Polio. In the book Polio, An American Story,
Speaker 1: David m Oshinsky writes about the urgency of Salk's work
Speaker 1: during the time, quote for Sealk, there was reason to hurry.
Speaker 1: The year nineteen fifty two was the worst polio year
Speaker 1: on record, with more than fifty seven thousand cases nationwide.
Speaker 1: The headlines screamed of plague season and polio time. Twenty
Speaker 1: one thousand victims suffered permanent paralysis, and about three thousand died.
Speaker 1: From the very beginning of the polio epidemic, monkeys were
Speaker 1: considered to be essential for research before human trials could
Speaker 1: take place, becoming the unsung heroes of the fight to
Speaker 1: defeat the disease. It was through animal research that scientists
Speaker 1: first discovered that there were three strains of the deadly disease.
Speaker 1: The monkeys were purchased at a high cost from India
Speaker 1: and the Philippines and shipped to the United States. Many
Speaker 1: died in transit, so the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis,
Speaker 1: now known as the March of Dimes, began overseeing their
Speaker 1: import In nineteen forty nine, a foundation established a special
Speaker 1: facility known as ok Tee Farms in rural South Carolina
Speaker 1: to process the monkeys arriving from abroad. Ok Tee Farms
Speaker 1: operated in the Pyney Colony area of Beaufort County in
Speaker 1: coastal South Carolina. Originally called the Pritchardville Primate Center, the
Speaker 1: forty acre or sixteen hectar a tract of land along
Speaker 1: the river, was called by local newspapers the Ellis Island
Speaker 1: for thousands of monkeys from India. Naturalist John Hamlet had
Speaker 1: the job of finding a space for the primate center
Speaker 1: that was both connected to deep water ports and airports,
Speaker 1: but also remote enough from neighbors. The area he shows
Speaker 1: closely approximated the natural habitats of the monkeys, with its
Speaker 1: abundance of shady long leaf pines and a mild climate.
Speaker 1: The monkeys were originally brought into Savannah, Georgia, one of
Speaker 1: the region's biggest ports, and taken by truck the thirty
Speaker 1: odd miles or fifty some kilometers to the farm. When
Speaker 1: air travel became more popular, they were flown via London
Speaker 1: in New York before traveling by train to the low Country,
Speaker 1: But once they arrived at the farm, veterinarians treated the
Speaker 1: two thousand or so rhesus and synomologous monkeys before clearing
Speaker 1: them for transport to research facilities around the country. The
Speaker 1: monkeys spent twenty one days getting acclimated and eating a
Speaker 1: special diet was scientists carefully monitoring their status. Many went
Speaker 1: to Selks facility in Pittsburgh and Sabin's in an arbor,
Speaker 1: where they were given vaccines to test the vaccine's strength
Speaker 1: against the three strains of poliovirus. A few locals were
Speaker 1: aware of the research that was going on at the farm.
Speaker 1: Despite rumors of people encountering the animals, we were unable
Speaker 1: to discover any opposition to the research facility, perhaps because
Speaker 1: it was not well known, and also because opposition to
Speaker 1: using animals and testing was not very common at the
Speaker 1: time in the United States. The movement against animal testing
Speaker 1: didn't pick up steam until around nineteen eighty. In any case,
Speaker 1: the farm's purpose wasn't permanent. One Sal's polio vaccine was
Speaker 1: deemed success and released to the public in nineteen fifty five.
Speaker 1: The work of Okte Farms was no longer necessary, and
Speaker 1: the facility closed in nineteen fifty nine. H Saban's oral
Speaker 1: vaccine came into use in nineteen sixty one. The foundation
Speaker 1: that had established the facility turned its attention to reducing
Speaker 1: premature births. The monkeys found new homes and labs across
Speaker 1: the country. According to a former employee named Louise Crawford,
Speaker 1: things that the farm were left just as they were,
Speaker 1: including the monkey cages. Caretaker kept the grass in plant
Speaker 1: life at bay. The lab was locked up ready for
Speaker 1: someone new to take on the important task of preparing
Speaker 1: monkeys for research, but that day never came. In nineteen eighty,
Speaker 1: the land and its contents were sold to a development group.
Speaker 1: The lab equipment was donated to a local school science department,
Speaker 1: while a farmer claimed the former monkey cages for his
Speaker 1: own animals. Today, the acreage along the oak Ti River
Speaker 1: is mostly residential and privately owned. Thanks to Selks and
Speaker 1: Saban's vaccines, polio cases of plummeted from three fifty thousand
Speaker 1: to just twenty two. Animal testing is still considered objectionable
Speaker 1: in many settings, such as the cosmetics industry, but it
Speaker 1: is an important final step in some medical testing before
Speaker 1: treatment is attempted with human patients. Hopefully, in the future,
Speaker 1: medical technologies like lab grown organs and advanced computing will
Speaker 1: allow scientists to avoid the practice altogether, but for now,
Speaker 1: it saves countless lives. Today's episode was written by Caroline
Speaker 1: Eubanks and produced by Tyler Clang. For more in this
Speaker 1: a lots of other topics, visit hous stufforks dot com.
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