What Are The Most Commonly Used Species For Animal Research?

Animals are used for a variety of purposes in the Usa—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 instruction. The largest utilize of animals is in food and fiber production, accounting for over 5 billion vertebrates each year (U.Southward. Department of Agriculture, 1985). An estimated 110 meg dogs and cats are household pets in the United States. Between 17 million and 22 million animals are estimated to be used annually in the U.s.a. in research, education, and testing. About 85 percentage of these are rats and mice, and less than 2 percent are cats, dogs, and nonhuman primates (Role of Engineering science Assessment, 1986).

Animals are used in research to improve the health and welfare of humans and animals and to proceeds basic cognition that cannot be gained in other ways. Research conducted on animals varies widely in its impact on the creature subjects themselves. 1 field of behavioral research consists of observations of animals living in colonies that simulate their natural environments but with acceptable food supplies and no predators. In some research projects, animals are subjected to experimental procedures so receive supportive care, considering 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 research animals are subjected to toxic substances and painful procedures until they are disabled or die, as when determining the lethal dose of radiation used in cancer therapy. Some are killed to obtain an essential organ, such equally the liver, to exist used in further studies. Others are anesthetized, subjected to an experimental procedure, and killed without regaining consciousness.

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

Numbers of Animals Used

In 1952 the National Research Quango established the Institute for Laboratory Brute Resources (ILAR) to serve every bit a coordinating agency and an information resource on the use of laboratory animals. In 1962, 1968, and 1978, ILAR conducted major surveys of laboratory animal facilities and resource, with the results of the 1978 survey being published past the U.S. Department of Wellness and Human Services (National Inquiry Council, 1980). The 1968 and 1978 ILAR surveys included near of the entities that use animals in biomedical research, including nonprofit, commercial, military, and federal organizations. ILAR is currently planning a fourth survey.

The Beast and Plant Wellness Inspection Service (APHIS) of the U.S. Department of Agronomics (USDA) also collects data on the extent of animal use. Each yr APHIS prepares an Animate being Welfare Enforcement Report, which summarizes the almanac reports filed with APHIS by registered research facilities that use animals in research (U.S. Department of Agronomics, 1972–1987). All registered research facilities are required to submit these reports. Institutions are non required to report on their use of rats, mice, birds, and domestic farm animals used for inquiry, but the annual report course has infinite for voluntary reporting on the employ of rats and mice.

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

TABLE 1

Various Estimates of the Number of Animals Used in the The states.

Employ of Animals in Research by the Federal Regime

The federal regime is a major user of research animals. Specifically, the following departments and agencies use animals for intramural enquiry and testing (Role of Engineering science Assessment, 1986).

• The U.Due south. Department of Agriculture conducts research with animals to improve animal health and the quality of animal products, such equally food and fiber.

• The U.South. Section of Defense conducts experimental research in a wide variety of areas, with animals being used past the Air Force, the Army, the Navy, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the Defence force Nuclear Bureau, and the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.

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

• The U.Southward. Department of Health and Human Services carries out intramural animate being inquiry or testing within four of its components: the National Institutes of Health (NIH); the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which is part of the Alcohol, Drug Corruption, and Mental Wellness Administration (ADAMHA); and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which is part of the Centers for Disease Control. NIH is the largest of these iv components and uses more animals than any other federal department or agency.

• The U.S. Department of the Interior, in cooperation with state and private organizations, conducts enquiry and education programs to ameliorate fish and wildlife resource management.

• The U.S. Department of Transportation conducts research on transportation prophylactic using animals nether the authority of the Hazardous Transportation Human activity of 1974 and the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966.

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

• The Environmental Protection Bureau (EPA) performs research involving animals under the statutory and regulatory authority of the Toxic Substances Control Human action and the Federal. Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act.

• The National Aeronautics and Space Assistants (NASA) conducts research with animals to acquire knowledge that tin be used to protect the health of astronauts, both during their missions in space and later their return to world.

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

The Function of Engineering science Assessment (1986) has estimated that the total federal use of animals in 1983 was ane.6 million, with about 90 per centum of these animals being rats and mice.

Use of Animals in Education

The number of animals used in education is unknown, but about observers recollect that it is relatively small. For case, an estimated 53,000 animals are used annually for teaching in medical and veterinary schools (Role of Technology Cess, 1986). However, animal utilize in high schools and colleges might exist most people's only contact with laboratory animals, making information technology an important determinant of how the public feels near such employ. This topic is outside the charge of the committee, merely the recent written report by the Office of Engineering science Assessment (1986) examines the consequence in some particular.

Use of Animals in Testing

Animals are used extensively to test the prophylactic and efficacy of compounds produced by the chemical, cosmetic, and drug industries. The utilize of so many animals, especially rats and mice, in testing cannot be ignored even though the committee was charged primarily with looking at the use of animals in enquiry. Government regulatory agencies, such as FDA, EPA, CPSC, and the Occupational Safe and Health Administration (OSHA), often explicitly require the use of animals in testing. A list of some commonly used tests follows (Function of Engineering science Cess, 1986). Descriptions of possible culling methods can be plant in Chapter 4.

• Astute toxicity tests consist of single doses at concentrations loftier enough to produce toxic effects or decease. They are ofttimes used to screen substances for relative toxicity. The LD_fifty, which is the dose of a test substance at which half the test animals can be expected to die, is one such test.

• Eye and skin irritation tests, which usually consist of a single exposure, are generally used to develop warnings for handling and to predict the toxicity of accidental exposure. The about common method used to exam eye irritation is the Draize test, in which a test substance is applied to ane middle 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 than a year to determine the possible furnishings of long-term exposure. Rats are most commonly used for these tests.

• Carcinogenicity tests involve repeated exposures to substances for most of an animal'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 cause infertility, miscarriages, and birth defects. Rats and rabbits are the most commonly used animal subjects.

• Neurotoxicity tests use a variety of doses and exposures to make up one's mind toxic furnishings on the nervous organization. Toxic end points include behavioral changes, lack of coordination, motor disorders, and learning disabilities in animals.

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

• Biological screening tests investigate the biological activeness of organic compounds. Animals may exist used in these tests depending on the type of biological activity existence investigated.

Nearly of the above-mentioned tests require the use of large numbers of animals. All the same, as mentioned before, the number of animals used in testing is not known. Most testing is thought to be conducted in private commercial establishments that use primarily rats and mice, which under current regulations are not subject area to the reporting requirements of the Animal Welfare Act. A recent gauge of the full number of animals used in testing was ''several'' million (Office of Applied science Assessment, 1986). Some other written report (Theta Corporation, 1986) estimated that the employ of animals in testing and industrial research is considerably greater than that, with organizations outside of government and academia accounting for over 75 percent of the estimated 22 meg laboratory animals used annually. Of these animals, rodents by far are used in the greatest numbers.

New Technologies and Hereafter Laboratory Use of Animals

The new and rapidly expanding field of biotechnology will have an impact on the species and numbers of laboratory animals used, but information technology is too early to predict precisely its ultimate effects. In some cases, the number of animals used might exist reduced equally biotechnology provides new testing methods acceptable to governmental regulatory authorities. In other cases, biotechnology might cause a need for more animals too as shifts in the relative numbers of diverse species of animals used. Now, the biotechnology manufacture in the United states of america purchases an estimated xi percent of all laboratory rodents sold, near 5 percent of the swine, and near 2 per centum of the rabbits and dogs, but few primates or cats (Theta Corporation, 1986).

Several effects of biotechnology can already be seen. Rabies virus is widely distributed in nature. It was initially studied by infecting alive laboratory animals with the virus, which led to vaccines produced using alive animals. Recently, new diagnostic tests have been developed that use monoclonal antibodies produced past 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 as growth hormone and insulin can at present be made using bioengineering techniques. Although this method of product will non eliminate the apply of animals, it may reduce the number used per product, because prophylactic tests can then be performed with larger batches of a uniform product.

The increasing sophistication in determining molecular structure and using information technology to predict biochemical part may reduce the use of animals. Scientists can use advances in engineering to determine the active sites of molecules and even the zipper sites of viruses.

Such information may permit drug synthesis to keep in a more directed fashion. New compounds developed in this way will notwithstanding require safety and efficacy testing in animals. Animals will likewise withal be needed for the validation of predicted results.

The numbers of particular animals used could change. For case, more mice might be used, because transgenic mice produced past the microinjection of DNA into fertilized mouse eggs constitute a powerful system for the study of specific genes (Bieberich and Scangos, 1986).

Summary

No comprehensive data on the utilise of animals for inquiry, testing, and pedagogy in the individual sector are bachelor, and trends in this use are difficult to approximate. Federal in-house use amounts to virtually 1.six 1000000 animals, or less than 10 percent of the estimated 17 meg to 22 1000000 animals used annually for research, education, and testing in the Us. A compatible system of reporting, while costly, would help to determine more accurately the numbers of animals used in inquiry, which would brand it possible to appraise the bear on 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. Commonly used tests include those for acute toxicity, eye and skin irritation, repeated-dose chronic toxicity, carcinogenicity, developmental and reproductive toxicity, neurotoxicity, mutagenicity, and biological screening. Future technologies might afford ways of reducing animal utilize, or they might atomic number 82 to a need for more animals or to shifts in the relative numbers of unlike species used.

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

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