Animal testing

Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and in vivo testing, is the use of animals, as model organisms, in experiments that seek answers to scientific and medical questions. This approach can be contrasted with field studies in which animals are observed in their natural environments or habitats. Experimental research with animals is usually conducted in universities, medical schools, pharmaceutical companies, defense establishments, and commercial facilities that provide animal-testing services to the industry.^[1] The focus of animal testing varies on a continuum from pure research, focusing on developing fundamental knowledge of an organism, to applied research, which may focus on answering some questions of great practical importance, such as finding a cure for a disease.^[2] Examples of applied research include testing disease treatments, breeding, defense research, and toxicology, including cosmetics testing. In education, animal testing is sometimes a component of biology or psychology courses.^[3]

Research using animal models has been central to most of the achievements of modern medicine.^[4][5][6] It has contributed to most of the basic knowledge in fields such as human physiology and biochemistry, and has played significant roles in fields such as neuroscience and infectious disease.^[7][8] The results have included the near-eradication of polio and the development of organ transplantation, and have benefited both humans and animals.^[4][9] From 1910 to 1927, Thomas Hunt Morgan's work with the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster identified chromosomes as the vector of inheritance for genes,^[10][11] and Eric Kandel wrote that Morgan's discoveries "helped transform biology into an experimental science".^[12] Research in model organisms led to further medical advances, such as the production of the diphtheria antitoxin^[13][14] and the 1922 discovery of insulin^[15] and its use in treating diabetes, which was previously fatal.^[16] Modern general anaesthetics such as halothane were also developed through studies on model organisms, and are necessary for modern, complex surgical operations.^[17] Other 20th-century medical advances and treatments that relied on research performed in animals include organ transplant techniques,^{[18][19][20][21]} the heart-lung machine,^[22] antibiotics,^[23][24] and the whooping cough vaccine.^[25]

Animal testing is widely used to aid in research of human disease when human experimentation would be unfeasible or unethical.^[26] This strategy is made possible by the common descent of all living organisms, and the conservation of metabolic and developmental pathways and genetic material over the course of evolution.^[27] Performing experiments in model organisms allows for better understanding of the disease process without the added risk of harming an actual human. The species of the model organism is usually chosen so that it reacts to disease or its treatment in a way that resembles human physiology as needed. Biological activity in a model organism does not ensure an effect in humans, and care must be taken when generalizing from one organism to another.^[28] However, many drugs, treatments and cures for human diseases are developed in part with the guidance of animal models.^[29][30] Treatments for animal diseases have also been developed, including for rabies,^[31] anthrax,^[31] glanders,^[31] feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV),^[32] tuberculosis,^[31] Texas cattle fever,^[31] classical swine fever (hog cholera),^[31] heartworm, and other parasitic infections.^[33] Animal experimentation continues to be required for biomedical research,^[34] and is used with the aim of solving medical problems such as Alzheimer's disease,^[35] AIDS,^[36] multiple sclerosis,^[37] spinal cord injury,^[38] and other conditions in which there is no useful in vitro model system available.

The annual use of vertebrate animals—from zebrafish to non-human primates—was estimated at 192 million as of 2015.^[39] In the European Union, vertebrate species represent 93% of animals used in research,^[39] and 11.5 million animals were used there in 2011.^[40] The mouse (Mus musculus) is associated with many important biological discoveries of the 20th and 21st centuries,^[41] and by one estimate, the number of mice and rats used in the United States alone in 2001 was 80 million.^[42] In 2013, it was reported that mammals (mice and rats), fish, amphibians, and reptiles together accounted for over 85% of research animals.^[43] In 2022, a law was passed in the United States that eliminated the FDA requirement that all drugs be tested on animals.^[44]

Animal testing is regulated to varying degrees in different countries.^[45] In some cases it is strictly controlled while others have more relaxed regulations. There are ongoing debates about the ethics and necessity of animal testing. Proponents argue that it has led to significant advancements in medicine and other fields while opponents raise concerns about cruelty towards animals and question its effectiveness and reliability.^[46][47] There are efforts underway to find alternatives to animal testing such as computer simulation models, organs-on-chips technology that mimics human organs for lab tests,^[48] microdosing techniques which involve administering small doses of test compounds to human volunteers instead of non-human animals for safety tests or drug screenings; positron emission tomography (PET) scans which allow scanning of the human brain without harming humans; comparative epidemiological studies among human populations; simulators and computer programs for teaching purposes; among others.^[49][50][51]