Animal Testing

Introduction

Nowadays, animal testing is a subject that commonly occurs. Some people think it is needed in research, meanwhile others think it is not allowed to sacrifice animals for sciences because they are treated badly during their lifetime. Although some opponents do not consider the fact that animals are also used in the food industry. Laboratory animals are breed for sciences and will guarantee improvements in this field, so everyone would benefit from it. In particular, pharmaceutical, medical and cosmetic industries and household companies can improve their products by testing them on animals, leading to a better life quality and more satisfied costumers (Stubblefield, 05).

Discussion

However, beside the benefits of it there are also some disadvantages. Costs of housing animals, the reproducibility in human and the necessity of the product are aspects which they often need to consider more before using laboratory animals. Therefore, alternative tests are needed to reduce the use of animals. In vitro techniques are considered as significant alternatives but they lack the complexity of the human body. The use of lower organisms, such as bacteria, fungi and insects, can complement these shortcomings because they can produce substances which animals also can create. Other possibilities are magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET) scans, computerized axial tomography (CAT) scans and telemetry (Stubblefield, 05).

These are methods to follow the physiological processes in animals without treating them, so these are also good alternatives that can be used. Synthetic membranes, statistics and computer models, can also avoid the use of animals. Synthetic membranes can be used to determine the effect of chemicals and treatments on skin tissue. Statistical procedures can allow researchers to use comprehensive data sets to better gauge how a disease can spread. Using data that was previously obtained from animal testing also reduces the number of animals. Computer ...