“...LESS THAN .25% OF THE TOTAL ANIMALS in us ReseaRch facilities in 2014 [weRe dogs]...”
and Refine techniques to minimize suf- fering and improve welfare. The best resource to learn about how animals are cared for in the research setting is the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals , which is the bible of lab animal care and includes detailed information on the care, housing, shipping, veterinary care, and facilities necessary for just about any species that you can imagine from farm animals to amphibians. The Guide is currently in its 8th edition, and anyone can buy a copy (not the most thrilling read, but very thorough and informative). Another thing to consider is that it is in researchers’ best interests to have healthy, mentally sound animals. Poor conditions like overcrowding or inap- propriate light cycles cause stress, and stress impacts the physiology of the body. This will drastically affect study results, and not give accurate informa- tion. When studying a particular dis- ease, the animal needs to be otherwise healthy for researchers to get an accu- rate picture of how that disease works. By knowing how a disease works, they can identify ways to stop it. One of the big things in the research world right now is environmental enrichment for animals. According to the Guide, enrichment is “provid- ing animals with sensory and motor stimulation, through structures and resources that facilitate the expression of species-typical behaviors and pro- mote psychological well-being”. This can be as simple as providing mice with a plastic tube to hide in so they feel more secure, or housing dogs in groups so that they can play and interact with their little pack. dogs in research? You got it—research isn’t just for rats and zebra fish. Beagles are the most commonly used dog in research due to their friendliness and small size. Most dogs in research are bred specifically for that purpose, but occasionally may be acquired from other sources (if dogs come from a shelter, the Guide instructs
that they should be checked for tattoos and microchips that might indicate they were a pet and contact the own- ers—one would hope all shelters do that anyway). The Guide recommends that dogs have toys to play with, at least eight square feet of space per dog (this is the minimum size for dogs under 15 pounds—space increases with the size of the dog), and opportunities to run and play, be that in an outdoor yard or indoor run. Training is both beneficial for the dogs and makes life easier for the researchers and husbandry staff. Dogs have helped in many scientific discoveries. One of the best known is the discovery of insulin and how the pancreas was related to diabetes. After the observation of diabetic patients sug- gested that the pancreas was involved, Dr. Frederick Banting wanted to run experiments to figure out what was going on. Along with medical student Charles Best, he removed the pancreas from a dog, that then developed diabe- tes. They then removed the pancreas from another dog and processed it to form a substance that they called “isle- tin.” When this was injected into the diabetic dog, its symptoms subsided. From there, isletin would come to be called insulin, testing was done on more dogs and then human volunteers. Today, insulin is a household word. Dogs also played a vital role in the development of modern blood trans- fusion. In 1907, George Crile used 32 dogs for successful blood transfusions, and in 1914 Adolph Hustin tried add- ing sodium citrate to prevent clotting and successfully transfused it into dogs. Richard Lewisohn took this idea a little further and refined the amount of sodium citrate that could be added to the blood without harming the canine recipients. Dogs are great models for cardiovas- cular and orthopedic conditions. They have been used in angioplasty studies to help understand, treat, and prevent heart attacks, and were used to test stents for keeping blood vessels open. Orthopedic advances that dogs contrib- uted to include the study of spinal cord
injuries, tendon and ligament repair, and the use of prosthetics. Canine diversity is ripe for genetic and DNA studies. Some studies focus on heritable disorders that dogs and humans share (such as epilepsy), while others focus on ones specific to dogs. All species benefit from these discoveries because they increase our knowledge of how genes interact with one another and assist with locating problematic genes. Dogs are also being used in studies on brain aging and Alzheimer’s, several types of cancer, and organ transplants. For additional information and studies, visit the reference sites listed below. It is true that dogs in research don’t lead the life of a typical family pet, but their care and management has improved by leaps and bounds over the years as science and animal care have advanced. These dogs and other ani- mals are given great care to keep them happy and healthy. It should also be not- ed that dogs make up a very small por- tion of the animals used in research— less than .25% of the total animals in US research facilities in 2014 accord- ing to the National Association for Biomedical Research. Most of us will probably never work with any animals in research, but it is an important topic to understand. Most of the medications and treatments that we take for granted today were made pos- sible because of the efforts of scientists and the animals that they studied. The medical knowledge that is gained from biomedical research is used to improve the lives of all species. references 1. www.understandinganimalresearch. org.uk/how/three-rs 2. www.nobelprize.org/educational/ medicine/insulin/discovery-insulin. html 3. www.animalresearch.info/en/ medical-advances/timeline/ blood-transfusion 4. fbresearch.org/wp-content/ uploads/2016/04/dogs-in- biomedical-Research-fbR.pdf 5. www.nabr.org/biomedical- research/laboratory-animals/species- in-research/dogs/
t5 01 / 05$) 5 0:4 + 6-:
Powered by FlippingBook