The 9 Most Tested Lab Animals

An anonymous reader writes "Discover Magazine has this odd photo gallery in which they explain why certain animals are used in scientific research. Why are high-tech contact lenses always tried out in rabbits? Why do we study monogamy in prairie voles? Etc. They say of the 9 animals: 'Taken (or stitched) together, they form a kind of laboratory doppelganger for humans.'"

Re:They forgot one

[reverseengineer]

To be fair, I don't think that list was meant to be comprehensive. In addition to the issues the parent mentions, it's a list of model organisms that includes naked mole rats, but not plain vanilla laboratory rats (they are mentioned in passing, I guess), so contrary to the /. article title, there's no attempt at a ranking here. In terms of a broader list of what sort of organisms are used for biological research, the Wikipedia page for model organism [wikipedia.org] has a lot of examples.

While not on either list, my own work depends on an assist from horseshoe crabs. Horseshoe crabs have a very simple but effective immune system which produces clots upon contact with bacterial endotoxins; blood is extracted from horseshoe crabs (they are caught and released) and a substance called Limulus amebocyte lysate [wikipedia.org] is extracted and is used extensively to test the sterility of drugs and medical devices.

Re:They forgot one

[clong83]

I did meet a group that did a LOT of experiments with moths, but it had nothing to do with the immune system. They were studying the moth's neurology during flight and subjecting them to all kinds of interesting flight tests.

Interesting tidbit: They chopped off the moth's antennae and it lost the ability to fly. They glued on artificial antennae to the remaining stubs, and the power of flight was restored...

Re:They forgot one

[crmarvin42]

I think people _do_ condone (albeit tacitly) the mistreatment of agricultural animals, and I think it's because of the "yuck" factor of some science research. I suspect that an average dairy cow probably lives a worse life than your average lab rat (I've worked on dairy farms, and know how appallingly they're treated).

As someone who has also worked on a half dozen dairy farms in the north east I have to ask you WTF are you talking about. I'm asking becuase I've seen alot of people interpret management practices that minimize stress as being abuse based on the human tendancy toward anthropomorphizing (what would I want in that situation).

I've worked on operations that utilized rotational grazing and daily pasure access, as well as freestall barns with an 8x8 milking parlor, and one thing has been constant across all the farms I've worked on and that's the razor thin profit margins. Abused cows, or even more subtley stressed ones, produce less milk for the same amout of feed intake. Therefore, abusing or stressing your cows is a sure-fire way to end up filing for bankruptcy.