Researchers at UC Davis did not mistreat seven monkeys who died in their care after a building heater malfunctioned.

A report released by the university today dismisses allegations raised last year by a former employee who said researchers routinely abused monkeys at the university's primate research center. In the report, campus investigators called the allegations "unfounded, out of context or too vague to be pursued properly."

A former animal care technician at the California National Primate Research Center, Cheri Stevens, said seven monkeys died in the summer of 2004 after the building's ventilation system failed. She said officials did not respond to her requests that the monkeys be moved even though the room's temperature climbed to about 115 degrees.

Stevens also complained of routine mistreatment and starvation of the monkeys.

The investigation was led by the university's attending veterinarian and members of the campus Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.

The university paid a $4,800 fine to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in December 2005 because of the monkeys' deaths.