Regulator says found no animal welfare breaches at Musk firm beyond 2019 incident

investing.com:

By Marisa Taylor

(Reuters) — The head of the U.S. agency responsible for animal welfare has told lawmakers that it did not find any violations of animal research rules at Elon Musk's Neuralink beyond a 2019 incident the brain implant company had already reported.

Officials with the Department of Agriculture (USDA) conducted a «focused» inspection in response to a complaint about the company's handling of animal experiments, but identified no compliance breaches, the agency's secretary Thomas Vilsack wrote to Congressman Earl Blumenauer in a July 14 letter reviewed by Reuters.

The inspection included visits at Neuralink's two facilities in January 2023, Vilsack wrote, adding that there would be more inspections.

Musk has expressed grand ambitions for his brain-implant startup, saying its chip would allow healthy and disabled people alike to pop into neighborhood facilities for speedy surgical insertions of devices to treat obesity, autism, depression and schizophrenia. He even sees them being used for web-surfing and telepathy.

Neuralink is preparing to test its brain implant device on humans.

Vilsack said in his letter his agency did not include in its inspection citations an «adverse surgical event» at Neuralink that occurred in August 2019. The company proactively reported it and took corrective action, which complied with the policy at the time, Vilsack added. The USDA changed its rules in 2021 so that self-reporting a violation no longer avoids a citation.

In the 2019 incident, a Neuralink surgeon used a sealant to close holes drilled into a monkey's skull that had not been approved by the animal research oversight panel, according to emails and public records obtained by the Physicians Committee of Responsible