Laboratory Animals: Introduction, Common Animals and Their Usage

Introduction of Laboratory Animals

The common laboratory animals are mice, monkeys, hamsters, guinea pigs, rats, rabbits, ferrets, fowls, and sheep. The animal experiment was started from the time of Aristotle (384–322 B.C.). The role of these animals to put science at this level is admirable. But we should not forget animal rights. This concern has led to laws and regulations governing the use of animals in research and to various guides and statements of principle designed to ensure humane treatment and the use of laboratory animals. They are used for cultivating microorganisms, drug sensitivity testing, pathogenicity testing to even antibodies production.

List of Common Laboratory Animals

Mice: As M. leprae cannot be cultured in-vitro but does grow on the footpads of mice, a conventional mouse colony was introduced to perform culture and sensitivity testing of M. leprae. In 1982 a nude mice colony was introduced to facilitate new drug trials for leprosy. Swiss Albino mice are the most common in practice.
Monkeys: Monkeys are primates and are extensively used in elaborations. Since they are genetically evolved animals, they are considered very suitable for tab testing
Hamsters: Infant hamsters and adult hamsters both are used for different purposes.
Guinea pig: It is a species of rodent belonging to the genus Cavia having a lifespan of 4 to 8 years. It eats grasses and the gestation period is of 59 – 72 days (Adult). The scientific name is Cavia porcellus with a weight of 0.7 – 1.2 kg (Adult) belong to the family Caviidae.
Rats: Laboratory mice and rats have historically accounted for a significant portion of the overall number of animals utilized in biomedical research. This figure is usually between 80 and 90% of the total number of animals employed.
Rabbit: Historically, It has been most used for antibody development and as testing sentinels for a wide array of products.
Ferret: It has some unique applications including the study of human influenza and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-associated coronavirus.
Fowls: The majority of birds used in research are domestic fowl. Most are used in fundamental or applied research into the disease, nutrition, and genetics, or for the production of biological materials such as antibodies and infectious agents, that may require the creation of genetically modified birds.
Sheep: They are applicable in fields of research like genomics, stem cell research, therapeutic cloning, surgical techniques and procedures, and biotechnology all offer speculations in eliminating non-treatable infectious diseases like AIDS and hepatitis, cancer, and for re-growing damaged spinal cord nerves to reverse paralysis.

Uses of Some Common Laboratory Animals are as follows-

Mice

Mice foot inoculation of M. leparae for cultivation and drug testing.

Monkeys

To raise antiserum
For red blood cells for serological tests.
For testing virulence of Entamoeba histolytica
Testing pathogenicity of poliovirus.
Testing hemagglutinating property of measles virus.
A laboratory model of influenza virus.
Animal model for influenza virus.

Hamsters

Infant hamsters: To test tumorigenicity of adenoviruses.

Adult hamster:

For pathogenicity testing of Leishmania donovani, Entamoeba histolytica, and Bacillus gondii.

For isolation of Leptospira, Leishmania species,Toxoplasma gondii

Other uses: Maintenance of virulence of E. histolytica

Drug efficiency testing against Leishmania donovani.

Guinea Pig

For the isolation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Mycobacterium Bovis, Yersinia pestis, Leptospira icterohaemorrhagiae, Brucella abortus, Chlamydia species, and Toxoplasma gondii

For toxigenicity testing of Corynebacterium diphtheriae, Clostridium perfringens, Clostridium tetani, and Clostridium botulinum

Pathogenicity testing of Listeria monocytogenes, Bacillus anthracis, Clostridium tetani, Entamoeba histolytica, and Cryptococcus neoformans

Other uses-

For the preparation of complement
For the evaluation of bronchodilator compounds.
Pathogenicity testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis ( spleen enlargement, lesions in spleen and liver).
Pyrogen testing
Sereny’s test.

Keynotes

The maintenance of nude mice is cumbersome as compared to Swiss albino mice.
Sheep blood is most commonly used in the diagnostic bacteriology laboratory to find out etiological agents.

universe84a