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Animal Research

Partnership for Environmental Education and Rural Health

Texas A&M University

http://peer.tamu.edu

Animals in Research

What is research?

Scholarly or scientific investigation or

inquiry

Why do we use animals in research?

• Scientists have developed many valuable non-animal models (i.e., cell culture, computer) that are useful for medical research, but these models cannot imitate the complicated processes that occur in a living system.

• Animals are similar to humans and are good models when humans can’t be used.

– Animal life is based on the same genetic, biochemical, and physiological principles as human life.

Should We Use Animals for Research?

Discovery requires research in biological systems.

Do YOU want to be the first subject to receive an unknown treatment?

Would you allow your daughter to use mascara or other eye products that have

not been tested to be safe?

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Research Conditions for Animals

Both animal welfare groups and animal activists have made contributions to improve awareness of the need for

humane research conditions for animals.

However, some animal activists have gone to extremes to stop all animal research regardless of its benefit to

animals and humans.

DVMIs it good for some extremists among animal-rights groups to commit crimes to stop animal research?

They release animals from their

cages; this is a problem because there will be no one to care for

them.

They bully researchers,

threaten their family, and this hurts the very

people who want to make life

better for us all.They destroy

labs; this stops research that

could help people.

DVM Raids by Animal-rights Extremists

• Diseases or body systems being studied

• Animals that are most similar to humans

• Animals that have been used in past research on the topic in question

How do we choose which animals to study?

Human Responsibility• Ethical treatment of animals means that

those animals used in testing should be treated well.

• Monitored by Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees.

• Ethical treatment of animals includes:

– Providing a comfortable living environment

– Minimizing discomfort from testing

– Humanely euthanizing animals

Federal Regulations for Laboratory Animal Care

• Derived from the Animal Welfare Act, with numerous amendments

• Enforced by U.S. Dept. of Agriculture inspectors

• Each research entity must have protocols approved by an independent panel of reviewers.

Friends

Family

Pets

Who benefits from animal research?

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Heart Transplant

• Dr. Norman Shumway completed a heart transplant in a dog in 1959.

• Eight years later Dr. Christiaan Branard performed the first heart transplant in humans.

• In 1968 Shumway completed the first human heart transplant in the United States.

PDA Surgery Research

• A PDA is a heart defect found when an artery that is supposed to close at birth, stays open.

• About 50 out of every 10,000 puppies are born with a PDA, compared to about 2 out of every 10,000 in humans.

• Research into better surgical options for puppies has greatly advanced human treatments.

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Vaccinations

The history of vaccines:

• The first attempt to protect against infectious disease by vaccination was done by Edward Jenner with the cowpox virus in the 1790s.

• In the 1800s, Pasteur (who also developed Pasteurization) developed vaccines against rabies and anthrax.

Vaccinations

• Animals have been used to develop multiple vaccines for use in humans.

– Anthrax: sheep (1880’s)

– Cholera: various animals (1885)

– Rabies: various animals (1885)

– Polio: monkeys (1949)(earlier attempts with humans failed & even caused polio)

• By the 1900s, five vaccines were being used against smallpox, cholera, typhoid fever, rabies and the plague.

• In the 1970s, smallpox was eradicated by global vaccination.

• Today, vaccines are still being developed using new technologies such as genetic engineering.

Vaccinations

Vaccinations for Your Pets• Rabies – for all pets!

• Dogs

– Parvovirus

– Distemper

• Cats

– Feline Leukemia Virus

– Panleukopenia

• Horses

– Tetanus - Encephalomyelitis

– West Nile Virus - Flu/Rhino

– Strangles

DVM Rabies

• Rabies is a special case because it is lethal to pets and people.

• All states require pets to be vaccinated for rabies.

• Vaccines were originally made by injecting viruses into chicken eggs, allowing them to multiply and then removing them and deactivating them to produce a vaccine.

• Some of the vaccines todayare still made this way, while others have to be grown in animal tissue cultures.

How are vaccines made?

Tissue Culture

Viruses are injected into cells (preferably monkey kidney cells)

where they are allowed to grow and are then removed.

Vaccine Efficacy:Nobody wants to have a vaccine given to them, their family or their pets without knowing that it is effective and safe.

There is only one way to ensure that a vaccine is safe and that is to test it. The best way to do this is to test it in animals.

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Eyes – cataract surgery

• Each year near 2.7 million Americans have cataract surgery.

• It’s estimated that 80% of those over 65 have cataracts.

• Animal research has improved surgery techniques in humans and animals.

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Hip Replacement

• Because of animal research, both people and animals needing hip replacements have been able to walk again.

• Over 100,000 people receive hip replacements each year.

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Animal Use in Metabolic Research• Metabolism of muscle (Hill, 1922: frog)• Insulin & diabetes mechanisms (Banting, 1923: fish,

rabbit, dog)• Growth-stimulating vitamins (Eijkman, 1929: chicken)• Sugar metabolism, pituitary (Cori & Houssay, 1947:

frog, dog)• Oxidative metabolism (Krebs,1953: pigeon)• Nature of oxidative enzymes (Theorell, 1955: horse)• Cholesterol & fat metabolism (Bloch, 1964: rat)• Hormone mechanisms (Sutherland, 1971: various

mammals• Antibody synthesis (Tonegawa, 1987: mouse)

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N.I.H. Research

Using Animal Clones to

Generate Stem Cells

DVM How Cloning Is Done• Take a fertilized egg, suck out the nucleus with a

micropipette.

• Inject the empty egg with the nucleus from an adult animal.

• Implant the egg into the uterus and let it develop as an fetus.

• Low odds of success, but most domestic species have been cloned at least once.

Note: armadillos give birth to four clones naturally.

Nobody knows how they do it.

Click here and here for more information

DVM The Idea

• Injecting stem cells can repair damaged organs.

• BUT– stem cells from another person or animal carry surface molecules that may be attacked by the recipient’s immune system.

• Researcher’s solution: clone a monkey from its skin cells and harvest the embryo’s stem cells.

• These cells would not be attacked by the immune system if injected back into the monkey to repair a diseased organ.

Click here for more.