Lawsuit seeks to end NC primate center joint deal

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Wake Forest University Health Sciences and the University of California at Los Angeles are embroiled in a dispute over a primate colony in southern Forsyth County.

The Winston-Salem Journal reports (http://bit.ly/13d4Rkv) that the Wake Forest group is suing to end a joint venture with UCLA involving the research center. UCLA accuses Wake Forest of financially mismanaging the center.

The colony contains 475 vervet monkeys, many of which came from the Caribbean island of St. Kitts.

The Wake Forest group says it's willing to close the center if UCLA doesn't agree to continue to pay half of the operating costs.

In a counter lawsuit, UCLA wants the court to declare the joint venture as terminated because of material breach by Wake Forest, and not because it withheld financial contributions.