What is the significance of animal testing

Small rodents, particularly mice and rats, are used for the vast majority of animal experiments. The use of animals for the testing of certain consumer products is a sensitive issue - and rightly so. A number of alternatives have been developed over the years, particularly for these types of animal experiments.

These are primarily tests that are performed on cells that are grown in test tubes. On top of normal cell cultures as an alternative, there are now also certain stem cell derived human cells, 3D cell cultures, organoids and mini-organs on a chip that can be used to answer specific research questions. These are more complex models than normal cell cultures and can therefore in certain cases provide answers to more complex research questions. So depending on the question you need to answer these more complex tissue culture models are a valid alternative to the use of animals.

But also these new models cannot fully replace animals. They are a step in between simple cell cultures and the complete animal. Animal experiments are unavoidable if we want to make the necessary progress in medical-scientific research. Medical-scientific research aims to contribute to the improvement of health care. Before any new treatment is tried in humans, we will need data from animal studies to ensure it is likely to be effective and to help us understand what the side effects are likely to be.

It is not just medicines that need to be tested to make sure they are safe. Diagnostic tools such as scanners, and implants such as heart pacemakers or artificial hips, are safe and effective only because they were developed and tested in animals.

Many surgical techniques, such as open heart surgery and heart transplants, rely on methods and equipment that were developed using animals. New medicines require testing because researchers must measure both the beneficial and the harmful effects of a compound on a whole organism. A medicine is initially tested in vitro using tissues and isolated organs, but legally and ethically it must also be tested in a suitable animal model before clinical trials in humans can take place.

The animal tests provide data on efficacy and safety. They not only identify potential safety concerns, but also determine the doses which will be given to volunteers and patients during the first human trials. Testing on animals also serves to protect consumers, workers and the environment from the harmful effects of chemicals. All chemicals for commercial or personal use must be tested so that their effect on the people and animals exposed to them is understood.

The chemicals that we use day-to-day can accumulate in the water, ground or air around us, and their potential impact on the environment must be researched thoroughly. Researchers draw upon the full range of living things to study life, from bacteria to human beings. But researchers also investigate a wide range of animal species, from insects and nematodes to dogs, cats, and monkeys. In particular, mammals are essential to researchers because they are the closest to us in evolutionary terms.

For example, many diseases that affect human beings also affect other mammals, but they do not occur in insects, plants, or bacteria. Far fewer animals are used in research than are used for other purposes. An estimated 17 to 22 million vertebrate animals are used each year in research, education, and testing—less than 1 percent of the number killed for food. In fiscal year , about , dogs and 52, cats were used in experimentation, with 40, to 50, of those dogs being bred specifically for research and the others being acquired from pounds.

The necessity for animal use in biomedical research is a hotly debated topic in classrooms throughout the country. Frequently teachers and students do not have access to balanced, factual material to foster an informed discussion on the topic. This colorful, page booklet is designed to educate teenagers about the role of animal research in combating disease, past and present; the perspective of animal use within the whole spectrum of biomedical research; the regulations and oversight that govern animal research; and the continuing efforts to use animals more efficiently and humanely.

Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website. Here is a selection of common animal procedures:. Many different species are used around the world, but the most common include mice, fish, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, farm animals, birds, cats, dogs, mini-pigs, and non-human primates monkeys, and in some countries, chimpanzees.

Video: Watch what scientists have to say about alternatives to animal testing. It is estimated that more than million animals worldwide are used in laboratory experiments every year. But because only a small proportion of countries collect and publish data concerning animal use for testing and research, the precise number is unknown. For example, in the United States, up to 90 percent of the animals used in laboratories purpose-bred rats, mice and birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles and invertebrates are excluded from the official statistics, meaning that figures published by the U.

Department of Agriculture are no doubt a substantial underestimate. Within the European Union, more than 12 million animals are used each year, with France, Germany and the United Kingdom being the top three animal using countries.

Although these animals still endure the stresses and deprivation of life in the sterile laboratory environment, their lives are not recorded in official statistics.

HSI believes that complete transparency about animal use is vital and that all animals bred, used or killed for the research industry should be included in official figures. See some animal use statistics. For nearly a century, drug and chemical safety assessments have been based on laboratory testing involving rodents, rabbits, dogs, and other animals. Aside from the ethical issues they pose—inflicting both physical pain as well as psychological distress and suffering on large numbers of sentient creatures—animal tests are time- and resource-intensive, restrictive in the number of substances that can be tested, provide little understanding of how chemicals behave in the body, and in many cases do not correctly predict real-world human reactions.

Trying to mirror human diseases or toxicity by artificially creating symptoms in mice, dogs or monkeys has major scientific limitations that cannot be overcome.

Very often the symptoms and responses to potential treatments seen in other species are dissimilar to those of human patients.