DR. MOHD NAZAM ANSARI

m.ansari@psau.edu.sa

Why do we need to use animals for research and teaching?

What have people learned from animal research?

Are the animals used in research & education protected and taken care of?

Does everyone agree with using animals for research or do some people disagree?

The functions of cells and organs are basically the same in animals and humans.

Biologically, humans are in the Animal Kingdom.

What we learn from animals: is useful in human and animal medicine.

Animal are used to:

Understand how diseases affect living tissue

Develop and test treatments — including treatments for animals

Train future scientists and health-care professionals

Non-animal models are very important, but have limitations. They cannot duplicate the complicated interactions in a whole system.

Final testing depends on studies in living, whole animals or people.

This is actually required by federal law.

They CAN and ARE. Virtually all drugs, devices and medical procedures have been developed with some animal research.

This dog, Kodi, underwent hip replacement surgery twice. Hip replacement surgical techniques were tested first on animals and now help both animals and people.

Polio Landsteiner and Popper proved it

infectious; able to transmit disease to monkeys.

Salk and Sabin developed their vaccine through work with chickens and monkeys.

Polio was one of the most dreaded childhood diseases of the 20th century. Polio epidemics have crippled thousands of people, mostly young children;

the disease has caused paralysis and death for much of human history. Developed in the 1950s, polio vaccines are credited with reducing the

global number of polio cases per year from many hundreds of thousands to around a thousand.

Infant Mortality Studies in sheep led to use of steroids in treatment of

respiratory distress syndrome, a major cause of death in premature infants.

Advances in understanding and treatment of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) came from studies in rats, mice, dogs, and sheep.

High Blood Pressure (HBP) Goldblatt linked HBP to kidneys in rats, cats, and dogs. This

research led to treatments for high blood pressure.

Cushing linked HBP to brains in dogs. This research led to understanding the nervous system’s influence on blood pressure and development of drugs to treat it.

Obesity

Major risk factor for diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke and certain cancers

Epidemic in the United States: 64% of adults are overweight and 25% are obese

Mouse models and Zucker obese rats are shedding new light on causes of overeating, importance of leptin receptors, and ways that obesity leads to disease.

Includes rules for mandatory surprise inspections of animal research facilities.

These federal laws & regulations are in place to ensure that all research animals receive:

Good veterinary care

Appropriate housing

Proper Feeding

Humane handling

Sound sanitation and ventilation

This tutorial is to provide information on the use of rats and mice in experiments. Acquisition of animals Acclimation Animal Handling and Restraint Sex Determination

We have to be cared for properly. It’s the law!!!!!!!

Animals not bred in the research facility are to be acquired lawfully.

Researchers should make every effort to ensure that those responsible for transporting the animals to the facility provide adequate food, water, ventilation, space, and impose no unnecessary stress on the animals.

Endangered species should be used only with full attention to required permits and ethical concerns.

• Upon arrival to your facility, your animals should have an acclimation period before they are used in research studies.

• This period of time allows animals to adapt to a new environment.

• Effects of transportation stress include alterations in various blood parameters, immune cell function, food intake, and animal behavior.

• The period of time necessary for biological stabilization will depend on the parameters to be studied.

• Refer to your institution's attending veterinarian for recommendations that are appropriate for your project. Typically, acclimation periods can range from days to over a week, depending on the studies involved.

It's important to remember the following: As a small animal, rats and mice can be easily injured if

handled roughly. You should learn how to handle them firmly but gently and with confidence to avoid injuring these delicate animals.

Rats and mice are inclined to become aggressive and bite. Although their teeth seldom break through your skin, a bite can hurt! Develop your confidence in handling animals by learning from an experienced mentor and practice hand restraint first on anesthetized animals.

The best way to remove a mouse that is hanging on to your finger is to train yourself to lower your hand back into its cage. Presented with a retreat to its home cage, the mouse will quickly jump off your finger.

There are two common hand methods for restraining rats and mice. No matter how you will restrain the mouse, mice are picked up the following way:

Remove the cage top if they are housed in a filter-top cage.

Place the wire lid top sideways on top of the cage.

Pick up a mouse by the tail (away from the tail tip) and lift the mouse directly to the wire lid. You will find that the wire lid is a useful area to which the mouse will want to hang on with its front feet, allowing you the opportunity to reposition your grasp.

When picking up a mouse –

• Pick up the tail at the middle, not the tip. A mouse does not need to be picked up at the base of the tail like a rat does, because the mouse is light and its weight will not damage its tail.

• If you need a place to briefly sort and hold your mice, say while you are rapidly administering injections to a cage of mice, each mouse can be placed on the wire lid after its injection. Mice will stay on their wire lid a short while if food blocks are present, due to their instincts for food. If you quickly make all your injections, all the mice can be treated without a mix-up of repeated or skipped administrations.

Oral Feeding

Sexing

Gastric intubation ensures that all the material was administered

Feeding amount limited to 1% of body weight

Tools for Oral Feeding in Mouse

A 18 G stainless steel, ball tipped needle

a glove

Grasp the loose skin on the back of

the mouse and restrain it’s tail with

your ring finger and little finger.

Then, introduce the feeding tube

from the pharynx in to the

esophagus when the mouse is in

the act of swallowing.

Common complications associated with gastric intubation are

damage to the esophagus and administration of substance into

the trachea. Careful and gentle passage of the feeding needle

will greatly reduce these possibilities.

Most often used for rodents

Gavage tube attached to hypodermic syringe

Hold animal in proper position

Insert tube at approximately 45 degree angle

Do not force tube

Withdraw and start again if resistance is met while inserting the tube

The anatomy picture

showed the position of the

feeding needle tip inside

the esophagus with the

heart and sternum

removed.

Refer to the image below: the top two mice are neonates and note that the anogenital distance is larger in the male than in the female neonates, the penis and vulva cannot be easily differentiated and so are referred to as a genital papilla. The bottom two animals are adults; genitalia are differentiated.

Also, nipples become evident in females at about 10 days of age.

Sexing mice - The distance between the anal and

genital orifices is greater in the male (left)

compared to the female (right).

Hunched posture Hunched posture

Decreased activity

Unkempt fur (not grooming)

Pilo – erection

Hunched posture

Rapid shallow Breathing

“ Red tears “ albino rats”

Squinting of eyes

Vocalization

Feed and/or water refusal

Weight loss

Hair loss

Due to excessive grooming

Metabolic dysfunctions

External parasites and Nutritional disorders

Fight Wounds

Fighting is usually seen in males. The wounds are often seen on the tail, backs and genital area.

This is when a female has difficulty giving birth.

Signs might include vaginal discharge, dehydration, and lethargy.

Normal mice give birth only at night – if they are in labor during day , something is wrong.

There may also be dead pups in the cage.

Normal birth times = 1 – 3.5 hours for a litter of 11 pups

Head Tilt

WHEREVER POSSIBLE, PAIN/DISTRESS SHOULD BE ELIMINATED

Causes of Pain and Distress in Mice

• Spontaneous and experimentally-induced disease or injury.

What is your opinion about using animals as models in research?

You are going to do an assignment in which you will express your views!