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History
Medical research
Use of animals in research Today
How it helps us
Different animals used
Why we use animals in research
Can it be justified, why is it wrong
Pros/cons
Alternatives
Regulations
Future Outlook
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Is defined as the use of non-human animals in experimentation, for the better of human kind,
and health, but is controversial because of the negative effects on animals and their well being
The use of animals in scientific research has a long history, dating back to the fourth century
BCE
Aristotle is one of the first known to have performed experiments on living animals. In the
second century a Roman physician named Galen dissected goats and pigs, a practice which later
earned him the title “the father of vivisection.”
Literally, "vivisection" means the "cutting up" of a living animal
Aristotle was one of first people ever recorded to use live animals in testing on the animal itself
not for medical research.
There has been recorded the use of animals in research as far back as the Greek writings.
150 years ago it became known as science.
One of the first discoveries was the functioning of the cardio vascular and nervous systems and
Stephen Hales used a horse to demonstrate the measurement of blood pressure, and Antoine
Lavoisier used a calorimeter and a guinea pig to demonstrate that respiration was a type of
combustion.
William Harvey was famous for accurately describing how blood circulates around the body and
the part the heart plays in this.
He was able to disprove Galen's theory that the body made new blood as it used up the old.
He proved that the heart was a pump that forced the blood around the body through arteries
and that the blood was returned to the heart through the veins.
In 1628 Harvey wrote a book- Anatomical Essay on the Motion of the Heart and Blood in
Animals.
» 1950’s
kidney transplants-(dogs
and pigs)
Replacement heart valves
Polio vaccine-(mice)
Hip replacement surgery
» 1960’s
Heart bypass operations
Drugs to treat mental
illness
» 1970’s
Drugs to treat stomach
ulcers, asthma and
leukemia-(mice)
» 1980’s
Drugs to control transplant
rejection-(Mice)
Life support systems for
premature babies
» 1990’s
» Cloning of Dolly
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In 1891, George Fell, an American surgeon, forced respiration to treat victims of accidental
morphine poisoning or drowning. Nine years later, Matas used positive-pressure ventilation
through a tube in the larynx for operations on the open thorax.
was followed, in 1907, by a technique developed in France, whereby air containing
anaesthetic gas was blown into the lungs of the patient on inhaling.
Ferdinand Sauerbruch, originally, had the idea of blowing air into the lungs to keep them
inflated when opening the thorax –( positive-pressure ventilation or insufflation -)
but in his animal experiments he found that the technique was actually harmful and
concluded that positive-pressure ventilation should not be used to deliver anaesthesia to
human patients.
He conducted dozens of animal experiments - opening the chest and placing an animal in a
specially designed chamber, which had most of the air drawn out to lower the pressure. The
lungs of the animal were effectively held in an inflated state by negative air pressure. From
these animal experiments, Sauerbruch concluded that negative-pressure cabinets were the
final solution to the problem of the open thorax.
After Sauerbruch`s animal experiments, Samuel J Meltzer, in 1910, revived the technique of
insufflation - in which air is continually blown into the lungs - in his own animal experiments.
He is said to have found that the results of which indicated that the method could be a safe
way of keeping the lungs inflated during surgery.
» Cancer research and diagnosis, breast cancer:
» UCLA studies utilizing mice were the basis for human clinical trials
in patients with metastatic breast cancer.
» led to the breakthrough breast cancer medication
» Herceptin, the first cancer-fighting drug to successfully target a
specific genetic alteration, thereby limiting side effects such as hair
loss and nausea that often accompany conventional therapies.
» Mouse models of human cancers such as prostate, pancreatic and
lung cancer are widely utilized to test innovative cancer-fighting
agents.
» Animal research plays a very important role in
the development of targeted therapies that can
be used in personalized medicine, and an early
example of this is the drug Herceptin, which is
used to treat cancers that express the HER2
gene.
» Parkinson's disease:
» UCLA scientists pioneered deep brain stimulation, a
surgical procedure used to treat a variety of
disabling neurological symptoms — most
commonly the debilitating symptoms of Parkinson's
disease, such as tremors, rigidity, stiffness, slowed
movement and walking problems.
» The procedure, made possible through research
involving non-human primates, is used to treat
Parkinson's patients experiencing only limited
benefits from medication alone. Deep brain
stimulation also is used to treat essential tremor, a
common neurological movement disorder.
» developed a model of human breast cancer in
which many of these same features have been
applied to genetically modified human breast
tissue.
» Model is created by first isolating normal human
breast tissue from surgical specimens, genetically
modifying it to express oncogenes, and then
introducing the modified tissue into specially
engineered mice.
» Modified breast tissue first grows into normal
breast tissue, but then develops into human breastt
tumors while growing in the mouse breast tissue.
» Parkinson's researchers looking for ways to ignite the repair
mechanisms already in a patient's brain so that they can fix damage
that mechanisms couldn’t do otherwise.
» In the future, researchers may use stem cells from embryonic or
adult sources not to replace lost cells directly, but rather to turn on
the body's own repair mechanisms
» researchers may find effective drug treatments that help a patient's
own stem cells and repair mechanisms work more effectively.
» Stem cells in the adult primate brain occur in two locations. One,
the sub ventricular zone, is an area under fluid-filled spaces called
ventricles. The other is the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. In
primates, very few new neurons normally appear in either place,
which is why the phenomenon escaped notice until recently.
» In the mid1990s that when the brain is injured, stem cells in these
two areas proliferate and migrate toward the site of the damage.
The researchers are now trying to discover how far this kind of
response can go toward ameliorating certain kinds of damage.
Rodents are small in size, easy to
handle, relatively inexpensive to buy and keep, and produce
many offspring in a short period of time.
However, rodents may not always be the best animal model
to use in certain experiments. In these cases, dogs, cats, rabbits,
sheep, pigs, fish, frogs, birds, nonhuman primates, or other kinds
of animals may be used. All of these animals together make up
less than 10% of the animals used in research.
» (2009)In the U.S 1.13 million animals were used in
experiments (excluding rats, mice, birds, reptiles,
amphibians, and agricultural animals used in agricultural
experiments), plus an estimated 100 million mice and rats
» 76,001 subjected to pain without pain relief
» In Canada (2008) 2.27 million animals used in experiments
» 98, 633 animals subjected to “severe pain near, at, or above
the pain tolerance threshold of unanesthetized conscious
animals”
» In the United Kingdom (2009)
» 3.6 million experiments on animals
» 2.7 million without anesthesia
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Scientists typically use animals for testing purposes because they are considered similar to humans,
but Diseases that are artificially induced in animals in a laboratory are never identical to those that
occur naturally in human beings only similar. And because animal species differ from one another
biologically in many significant ways, it becomes even more unlikely that animal experiments will yield
results that will be correctly interpreted and applied to the human condition in a meaningful way.
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For example, according to former National Cancer Institute Director Dr. Richard Klausner, “We have
cured mice of cancer for decades, and it simply didn’t work in humans.” At least 85% HIV/AIDS
vaccines have been successful in non-human primate studies, as of 2010, every one of nearly 200
preventive and therapeutic vaccine trials failed to show benifit. In one case, an AIDS vaccine that was
shown to be effective in monkeys failed in human clinical trials because it did not prevent people from
developing AIDS, and some believe that it made them more susceptible to the disease. According to a
report in the British newspaper The Independent, one conclusion from the failed study was that
“testing HIV vaccines on monkeys before they are used on humans, does not in fact work.”
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Current regulatory standards for medical research in Canada require that medical research be
performed on animals. non-animal models can be used to reduce the number of animals required,
they cannot replace animals altogether. By law, animals must be tested in basic medical research to
determine how different treatments actually perform in a live body.
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Health Canada explains the reasons for this “It is often important to understand how the body as a
whole functions under certain conditions, including how repair and defence mechanisms operate in
the whole animal. In order to conduct studies in a living body, researchers must use animals whose
bodies closely resemble those of humans.”
» As time passed by, it became only natural of
scientists to test on animals. Not until the past
recent years there has been a controversy over
animal testing. People have different opinions
and different approaches to this matter. Some
people think hat it is wrong to force animals to
be tested on. Others think that testing on
animals can solve problems for humans.
Pros
Cons
Aids researchers in finding drugs and treatments
to improve health and medicine.
Countless animals are experimented on and then
killed after their use.
Medical Treatments have been made possible by
animal testing, including cancer and HIV drugs,
insulin, antibiotics, vaccines and many more.
Others are injured and will still live the
remainder of their lives in captivity.
Helps to ensure the safety of drugs and many
other substances humans use or are exposed to
regularly.
Generally costs an enormous amount of money,
animals must be fed, housed, cared for and
treated with drugs or a similar experimental
substance.
Human harm is reduced and human lives are
saved.
May occur more than once and over the course
of months, additional costs are incurred.
Researchers who study animals discover
information that can’t be learned from other
sources.
Argument that the reaction of a drug in an
animal's body is quite different from the reaction
in a human.
To see whether such products might be effective
in humans.
Animals are in an unnatural environment, they
will be under stress.
Painful and torturous experiments inflicted on
the animals.
» Personal Choice:
» The ethical aspect overshadows both of them, which means
that emotion may be the ultimate determining factor in
whether a person believes the benefits of animal testing
outweigh the problems involving animal testing.
» Views and more con points:
» Animal rights activists are opposed to using animals for
medical research because humans do not have the right to
use animals.
» With few exceptions, we do not experiment on human
subjects without their consent.
» Non-human animals cannot give informed consent, and the
vast majority of experiments using animals are so invasive
and injurious, we would never even consider allowing
humans to consent to being subjects in such experiments.
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The three R`s
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The three R`s are a set of principles that scientists are encouraged to follow in order to
reduce the impact of research on animals.
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The three R`s are: Reduction, Refinement, Replacement.
•Reduction:
•Reducing the number of animals used in experiments by: •Improving experimental
techniques
•Improving techniques of data analysis
•Sharing information with other researchers
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•Refinement:
•Refining the experiment or the way the animals are cared for so as to reduce their
suffering by: •Using less invasive techniques
•Better medical care
•Better living conditions
•Replacement:
•Replacing experiments on animals with alternative techniques such as: •Experimenting
on cell cultures instead of whole animals
•Using computer models
•Studying human volunteers
•Using epidemiological studies
» Animal experimenters are very aware of this ethical
problem and acknowledge that experiments should
be made as humane as possible.
» They also agree that it's wrong to use animals if
alternative testing methods would produce equally
valid results.
» Two positions on animal experiments:
» •In favour of animal experiments:
» •Experimenting on animals is acceptable if (and
only if): •suffering is minimised in all experiments
» •human benefits are gained which could not be
obtained by using other methods
» •Against animal experiments:
» •Experimenting on animals is always unacceptable
because: •it causes suffering to animals
» •the benefits to human beings are not proven
» •any benefits to human beings that animal testing
does provide could be produced in other ways
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A while ago, the toxicity of a new substance was measured by an ``LD50`` lethal dose(50%) a
test that required 200 rats, dogs or other animals to be force-fed various amounts of the
substance to determine the dose would kill half the group of animals
A change in protocol put a ban on the test
The organization for economic Co-operation and development says that if a substance kills the
first three animals it is tested on the trials are not necessary
When testing vaccines, the vaccine is only considered effective if at least 80% of the vaccinated
animals survive after being exposed to a disease. BUT, the disease must also kill 80% of the
control group not protected by the vaccine
Methods of Alternatives: 1)tetanus vaccines that only require measuring levels of antibodies in
the animal, it not only reduces the suffering, but halves the number of animals needed in half.
2)Some researchers in Canada are trying to use bacteria in tests instead of rats
3)usage of cell structures to produce vaccines, they are purer than those made with animals
and reduces the need for animal tests to check if the vaccine is safe.
Usage of the cell structure has given dramatic changes in the use of monkeys in polio vaccine
production in the Netherlands, there used to be 5000 monkeys annually, and it is reduced to
the cell cultures of 10 monkeys. The 10 monkeys produce enough polio vaccine to supply their
whole country .
To tests that involve skin corrosiveness it was measured by how far a substance ate into a
rabbits shaved neck, but now methods using replacements like reconstructed human skin or
synthetic material called corrosive the number of rabbits used will be reduced.
Anti-bodies, were traditionally created by injecting cancer cells into mice, but now can be
produced using DNA that’s made in a lab or from human cells.
» last 30 years there has been a decline in usage if animals in
research Great Britain and Norway have cut down the
number of animals used in research by 50 percent.
» Means there is a positive outlook for future research that
doesn’t involve as many animals because of the negative
factors and controversy
» More Alternatives
» New technology and alternatives are looking better by day
» In my opinion I think that animal testing in medical research
is wrong and cruel , but because of the many advances in
research and disease I cant say it didn’t help. Researchers
should have used other alternatives in my opinion instead of
using innocent animals for their experimentations, which
caused them pain and suffering.
» http://www.understandinganimalresearch.org.u
k/resources/video-library/
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1. Alternatives to animal testing.(2012),May 16. 2012. from,
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/alternatives-to-animaltesting.aspx
2.Why is it wrong to test on animals.(2012). Why do animals rights activists opose using nonhuman animals for medical research. May 20, 2012. from,
http://animalrights.about.com/od/vivisection/a/VivisectionFAQ.htm
3. About animal testing.(2011) Using animals for testing ;pros Versus cons. May 20, 2012.
from, http://www.aboutanimaltesting.co.uk/using-animals-testing-pros-versus-cons.html
4. UCLA newsroom.(February 12,2003). Animal research generates new treatments, Benefits
society. May 17, 2012. From, http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/animal-generates-newtreatments-45057.aspx
5. Medical advances through Animal research(2003). May 21, 2012. from,
http://cflegacy.research.urn.edu/iacuc/public_media/medicaladvances.cfm
6. Multiple Approaches for Using Stem Cells in Parkinson's Disease Research. (June 17,
2001.) May 23, 2012. from, http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/scireport/chapter8.asp
7. The Role of Animals in Research. 2012. May 21,
fromhttp://www.animalresearch.ubc.ca/animal-research-advances.html
8. AVEO’s Proprietary Human Tissue Transgenic HIM Model. (2002) May 23 2012. from,
http://www.aveooncology.com/r-d/human-response-platform/
» 1. http://www.erfline.com
» 2. http://www.vegansoapbox.com/animal-testing-is-wrong-plain-andsimple/
» 3.http://www.gevha.com/investigacion/alternativas/588-newscientisthuman-skin-to-replace-animal-tests
» 4.http://www.dipity.com/Adabbagh/Culminating-Activity_1/
» 5.http://www.stemcells.nih.gov/info/scireport/chapter8.asp
» 6. http://www.animalrightsnorfolk.webs.com
» 7. http://www.animalaid.org.uk
» 8. http://www.cartoonstock.com
» 9. http://www.advocacy.britannica.com
» 10. http://www.newint.org
» 11. http://www.peta.org
» 12. http://www.swaebr.org
» 13. http://www.jeanlambertmep.org.uk
» 14. http://www.wmicmeeting.org
» 15. http://www.aveooncology.com/r-d/human-response-platform/