The University of Kansas Medical Center has been cited for about 160 violations of federal animal protection laws during experiments at university laboratories.

The violations, cited during a U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection, occurred in the university's laboratories between August 2008 and June 2009.

KU Medical Center officials said steps have been taken to correct violations.

"We did have some problems in our animal care and research program, and we do not think that having this kind of a report is acceptable," said Marcia Nielsen, vice chancellor for public affairs.

Some of the experiments involved in the inspection were for stroke, Alzheimer's and AIDS vaccine research.

According to USDA inspectors, animals at KU Medical Center were left to suffer from painful illnesses and invasive surgeries without adequate veterinary care; inadequately trained staff members were allowed to handle animals; and experimenters repeatedly failed to consider modern alternatives to using animals in experiments, as required by law.

The USDA report describes how monkeys that were afflicted with an infectious disease were left to suffer from extreme weight loss, vomiting, diarrhea and neurological disorders for at least a day after they met criteria for euthanization. The monkeys were part of a study funded by the National Institutes of Health

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