Escaped baboons trigger disease warning

Scores of people could have been exposed to animal-borne disease during a dramatic escape of three baboons, experts have warned.

Two of the three baboons that escaped from Sydney's RPA Hospital on Tuesday before being recaptured. Picture: Seven News

Scores of people could have been exposed to animal-borne disease during the dramatic escape of three baboons from Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, wildlife experts have warned.

An investigation is under way by NSW Health after the primates were found roaming the grounds of the RPA on Tuesday, just metres from members of the public.

“There’s a high risk of zoonotic disease so it’s possible a disease could’ve jumped the species barrier,” Humane Research Australia chief Helen Marston said.

“That’s especially true if a member of the public had come into contact with one of the ­baboons.”

While no one was injured by the animals, any contact carries a “high potential” of infection.

“The close contact between baboons and humans results in a high potential for the transmission of infectious diseases,” said a research paper cited by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said there was a lock failure either on the truck or crate in which the 15-year-old male and two females were being transported.

“The three baboons decided to take a bit of a look around RPA grounds,” he joked on Tuesday. “They didn’t know what to do nor did the people around them.”

The baboons were contained by police and medical experts on Tuesday evening before hand­lers from Taronga Zoo tranquillised them.

Mr Hazzard insisted the baboons were not being transported for research purposes and the male was at the facility for a ­vasectomy.

Ms Marston said the minister’s response was “terrible” and an ill-conceived attempt to play down the gravity of the situation.

“It’s incredibly serious and it highlights the sector’s very poor regulation,” she said.

Humane Research Australia has repeatedly been denied access to the Wallacia facility in Sydney’s west that houses the baboons because of “biosecurity concerns”, Ms Marston said.

The baboons are used for ­research on treatments for conditions such as pre-eclampsia, complicated diabetes, kidney disorders and vascular diseases.