What Species Are Used In Animal Testing

Animals are used for a diverseness of purposes in the Us—for nutrient and other products; in sports and entertainment; for companionship; for the production of enzymes, hormones, and other biological products; and in research, testing, and education. The largest apply of animals is in food and cobweb production, accounting for over five billion vertebrates each year (U.S. Section of Agriculture, 1985). An estimated 110 1000000 dogs and cats are household pets in the The states. Between 17 one thousand thousand and 22 one thousand thousand animals are estimated to be used annually in the U.s.a. in research, education, and testing. About 85 percent of these are rats and mice, and less than 2 percent are cats, dogs, and nonhuman primates (Office of Engineering Assessment, 1986).

Animals are used in research to improve the health and welfare of humans and animals and to gain bones knowledge that cannot exist gained in other means. Research conducted on animals varies widely in its bear on on the animal subjects themselves. I field of behavioral research consists of observations of animals living in colonies that simulate their natural environments just with adequate nutrient supplies and no predators. In some research projects, animals are subjected to experimental procedures then receive supportive intendance, because their long-term survival and the validation of methods are the goals of treatment (examples include the evolution of organ transplantation and chronic toxicology). Some inquiry animals are subjected to toxic substances and painful procedures until they are disabled or dice, as when determining the lethal dose of radiation used in cancer therapy. Some are killed to obtain an essential organ, such as the liver, to be used in further studies. Others are anesthetized, subjected to an experimental procedure, and killed without regaining consciousness.

Not just is there considerable variation in how animals are used, merely there is variation in how many and what types of animals are used in experiments.

Numbers of Animals Used

In 1952 the National Research Council established the Institute for Laboratory Creature Resources (ILAR) to serve as a analogous agency and an information resources on the use of laboratory animals. In 1962, 1968, and 1978, ILAR conducted major surveys of laboratory animal facilities and resources, with the results of the 1978 survey being published past the U.Southward. Section of Health and Homo Services (National Inquiry Council, 1980). The 1968 and 1978 ILAR surveys included most of the entities that employ animals in biomedical inquiry, including nonprofit, commercial, military, and federal organizations. ILAR is currently planning a fourth survey.

The Beast and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the U.South. Department of Agriculture (USDA) also collects data on the extent of animate being employ. Each year APHIS prepares an Fauna Welfare Enforcement Report, which summarizes the annual reports filed with APHIS past registered research facilities that use animals in enquiry (U.S. Section of Agriculture, 1972–1987). All registered research facilities are required to submit these reports. Institutions are not required to written report on their use of rats, mice, birds, and domestic farm animals used for research, but the almanac written report form has infinite for voluntary reporting on the utilise of rats and mice.

Table 1 summarizes information from the ILAR and APHIS surveys and from estimates prepared by Health Designs, Inc., for the Role of Technology Cess (1986). Every bit demonstrated by the table, data from various sources show a lack of consistency. Information technology should exist noted that a considerable decrease was observed between 1967 and 1978 in the numbers of animals used as measured by ILAR. Recent almanac reports from APHIS, however, have shown that the total number of animals used in experimentation (excluding rats, mice, birds, and wild animals) increased from 1,571,693 in 1983 to 1,633,933 in 1986 (U.S. Department of Agronomics, 1972–1987). The Office of Technology Assessment (1986), in evaluating all the data, has ended that the available data are as well imprecise to let whatsoever conclusions to be made regarding recent trends in overall animal use. The ILAR survey being planned will provide more current information on animal employ.

Tabular array 1

Various Estimates of the Number of Animals Used in the U.s..

Use of Animals in Research by the Federal Government

The federal regime is a major user of research animals. Specifically, the following departments and agencies utilise animals for intramural research and testing (Office of Technology Assessment, 1986).

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture conducts research with animals to improve animal health and the quality of animal products, such as food and cobweb.

• The U.S. Department of Defense conducts experimental research in a broad diversity of areas, with animals being used past the Air Force, the Ground forces, the Navy, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the Defense Nuclear Agency, and the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.

• The U.S. Department of Energy conducts research on the health and environmental effects of energy technologies and programs. Near of this research takes place at the privately managed national laboratories—such equally Brookhaven National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Pacific Northwest Laboratories—and through contracts and grants to scientists employed at universities and other research facilities.

• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services carries out intramural brute enquiry or testing within four of its components: the National Institutes of Health (NIH); the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); the National Constitute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which is part of the Booze, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration (ADAMHA); and the National Found for Occupational Condom and Health (NIOSH), which is part of the Centers for Disease Control. NIH is the largest of these 4 components and uses more animals than any other federal department or bureau.

• The U.S. Section of the Interior, in cooperation with state and private organizations, conducts research and education programs to improve fish and wild animals resource management.

• The U.South. Department of Transportation conducts research on transportation safety using animals under the say-so of the Hazardous Transportation Act of 1974 and the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safe Act of 1966.

• The Consumer Production Safety Committee (CPSC) conducts tests to determine the toxic potential of consumer products.

• The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) performs enquiry involving animals nether the statutory and regulatory authority of the Toxic Substances Control Act and the Federal. Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act.

• The National Helmsmanship and Space Administration (NASA) conducts research with animals to learn noesis that can be used to protect the wellness of astronauts, both during their missions in space and subsequently their return to earth.

• The Veterans Assistants (VA) uses animals in its research and development divisions and in its education programs.

The Office of Technology Assessment (1986) has estimated that the total federal apply of animals in 1983 was 1.6 million, with nearly 90 percent of these animals existence rats and mice.

Use of Animals in Didactics

The number of animals used in education is unknown, but most observers remember that it is relatively small-scale. For example, an estimated 53,000 animals are used annually for educational activity in medical and veterinary schools (Office of Applied science Cess, 1986). However, animal apply in loftier schools and colleges might be most people's only contact with laboratory animals, making it an important determinant of how the public feels about such use. This topic is outside the charge of the committee, but the contempo written report past the Office of Technology Assessment (1986) examines the issue in some particular.

Use of Animals in Testing

Animals are used extensively to test the safety and efficacy of compounds produced by the chemical, cosmetic, and drug industries. The use of and then many animals, particularly rats and mice, in testing cannot be ignored even though the committee was charged primarily with looking at the utilise of animals in enquiry. Government regulatory agencies, such as FDA, EPA, CPSC, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), frequently explicitly crave the use of animals in testing. A list of some usually used tests follows (Office of Technology Assessment, 1986). Descriptions of possible alternative methods can exist found in Affiliate 4.

• Astute toxicity tests consist of unmarried doses at concentrations high enough to produce toxic effects or expiry. They are often used to screen substances for relative toxicity. The LD₅₀, which is the dose of a exam substance at which half the test animals can be expected to die, is i such test.

• Eye and skin irritation tests, which unremarkably consist of a unmarried exposure, are generally used to develop warnings for handling and to predict the toxicity of adventitious exposure. The almost common method used to test eye irritation is the Draize examination, in which a test substance is applied to one center of an developed rabbit, with the untreated eye serving as a control (Draize et al., 1944).

• Repeated-dose chronic toxicity tests entail repeated exposures to substances for periods of two weeks to more a year to decide the possible furnishings of long-term exposure. Rats are nigh commonly used for these tests.

• Carcinogenicity tests involve repeated exposures to substances for most of an brute's lifespan to detect possible human carcinogens.

• Developmental and reproductive toxicity tests consist of a variety of procedures to determine the potential of foreign substances to crusade infertility, miscarriages, and birth defects. Rats and rabbits are the nigh commonly used brute subjects.

• Neurotoxicity tests utilize a variety of doses and exposures to determine toxic furnishings on the nervous system. Toxic end points include behavioral changes, lack of coordination, motor disorders, and learning disabilities in animals.

• Mutagenicity tests include a diverseness of methods for determining whether genetic material of germ or somatic cells has been changed.

• Biological screening tests investigate the biological activity of organic compounds. Animals may exist used in these tests depending on the blazon of biological action being investigated.

Well-nigh of the to a higher place-mentioned tests crave the use of large numbers of animals. However, as mentioned earlier, the number of animals used in testing is not known. Most testing is idea to be conducted in individual commercial establishments that use primarily rats and mice, which under electric current regulations are non subject to the reporting requirements of the Animate being Welfare Act. A recent estimate of the total number of animals used in testing was ''several'' meg (Office of Engineering science Assessment, 1986). Another report (Theta Corporation, 1986) estimated that the use of animals in testing and industrial research is considerably greater than that, with organizations outside of government and academia bookkeeping for over 75 percent of the estimated 22 million laboratory animals used annually. Of these animals, rodents by far are used in the greatest numbers.

New Technologies and Time to come Laboratory Use of Animals

The new and rapidly expanding field of biotechnology volition have an impact on the species and numbers of laboratory animals used, but information technology is too early to predict precisely its ultimate furnishings. In some cases, the number of animals used might be reduced as biotechnology provides new testing methods acceptable to governmental regulatory regime. In other cases, biotechnology might cause a need for more animals as well every bit shifts in the relative numbers of diverse species of animals used. Now, the biotechnology industry in the U.s.a. purchases an estimated 11 percentage of all laboratory rodents sold, nearly 5 percent of the swine, and most 2 percent of the rabbits and dogs, but few primates or cats (Theta Corporation, 1986).

Several effects of biotechnology tin already be seen. Rabies virus is widely distributed in nature. It was initially studied by infecting live laboratory animals with the virus, which led to vaccines produced using live animals. Recently, new diagnostic tests accept been adult that use monoclonal antibodies produced by jail cell cultures, and vaccines are being produced with recombinant DNA technology (Freiherr, 1986). These changes take profoundly reduced the use of animals for this purpose.

Proteins such equally growth hormone and insulin can at present be made using bioengineering techniques. Although this method of production will not eliminate the utilise of animals, information technology may reduce the number used per product, because prophylactic tests can so exist performed with larger batches of a compatible product.

The increasing sophistication in determining molecular structure and using it to predict biochemical function may reduce the use of animals. Scientists can use advances in technology to determine the active sites of molecules and fifty-fifty the attachment sites of viruses.

Such information may permit drug synthesis to continue in a more directed mode. New compounds developed in this manner will withal require safety and efficacy testing in animals. Animals will likewise still exist needed for the validation of predicted results.

The numbers of particular animals used could alter. For example, more mice might be used, because transgenic mice produced by the microinjection of Dna into fertilized mouse eggs constitute a powerful arrangement for the study of specific genes (Bieberich and Scangos, 1986).

Summary

No comprehensive data on the utilise of animals for research, testing, and teaching in the private sector are bachelor, and trends in this use are difficult to gauge. Federal in-firm employ amounts to about 1.6 million animals, or less than x percentage of the estimated 17 million to 22 million animals used annually for inquiry, education, and testing in the United States. A uniform system of reporting, while costly, would assist to make up one's mind more than accurately the numbers of animals used in research, which would make it possible to assess the impact of policy on trends in beast use. Animals are used extensively in testing the safety and efficacy of compounds produced by the chemical, cosmetic, and drug industries. Ordinarily used tests include those for acute toxicity, middle and skin irritation, repeated-dose chronic toxicity, carcinogenicity, developmental and reproductive toxicity, neurotoxicity, mutagenicity, and biological screening. Futurity technologies might beget means of reducing animal utilise, or they might atomic number 82 to a need for more animals or to shifts in the relative numbers of different species used.

Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK218261/

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