Trained Subjects: Researchers Training Animals for Lab Tests

Reuters
July 3 2002

Scientists may have found a way to appease animal activists and still use mice, monkeys and other creatures in medical experiments.

Instead of coercing and sedating animals to take part in research studies, scientists are persuading and training them to participate in experiments.

"Apart from the obvious welfare benefits, such as not having to restrain or sedate the animals, they say it makes tests easier to do and produces more reliable results than if the animals are stressed," New Scientist magazine said today.

Less Struggle

Scientists at Britain's Defense Science and Technology Laboratory in Porton Down in Wiltshire in western England are using the approach to test the effects of nerve agents in sheep dips on monkeys.

Pigs have also been trained to work with researchers looking into the effectiveness of creams on blisters.

"It should be encouraged everywhere," Viktor Reinhardt, who advises the Animal Welfare Institute in Washington, told the magazine.

"If you work with an animal instead of against it, it has no reason to struggle," he added.

Animal rights activists have campaigned against the use of animals in scientific experiments, saying it is cruel and unnecessary.

But the magazine said activists have welcomed the new approach and hope the idea spreads, although they still think the best policy is not to use animals at all.

www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992498
New Scientist
19:00 03 July 02
Persuasion replaces coercion in animal experiments

Andy Coghlan

Persuasion is replacing coercion in animal experiments. Some lab animals are being trained to take part in tests in their own time and in the security of their own pens.

All it takes is a bit of patience and sensitivity, and animals will work with you instead of against you, say the pioneers of this approach. Apart from the obvious welfare benefits, such as not having to restrain or sedate the animals, they say it makes tests easier to do and produces more reliable results than if the animals are stressed.

Animal welfare organisations have cautiously welcomed the development and hope the idea spreads, although they would still prefer animals not to be used at all. "Although we promote refinement, it does make me feel uncomfortable, the idea of training an animal to cooperate in an experiment in which it will face harm and ultimately be killed," says Maggie Jennings of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

At Britain's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in Porton Down, Wiltshire, for instance, researchers are investigating the subtle neurological effects of nerve agents like the organophosphate pesticide diazinon, used in sheep dips.

"We look at extremely low levels of nerve agents to see if they disrupt sleep or brain electrical activity," says a senior researcher who prefers to remain anonymous to avoid being targeted by animal-rights extremists.

Tiny transmitters are fitted to the monkeys so their brains' electrical activity can be remotely monitored. They are then trained to do tasks such as distinguishing between shapes on a touch-sensitive screen. Such 0tests are traditionally done by taking the animal away from its own enclosure and physically restraining it in the alien environment of a test chamber. "Now, we take the behavioural test to the animals," says the researcher.

Banana milkshakes

The animals can also become accustomed to their handlers, she says. "That relationship is absolutely critical." And they earn "luxuries" such as banana milkshakes in return for their cooperation.

"They certainly look like they're enjoying themselves," says the researcher. It's not for us to make these anthropomorphic judgments, but the animals certainly have a choice not to do tests. We never force our primates to do something."

Pigs have also been trained to cooperate with researchers testing barrier creams against chemical blister agents. In the past, they were sedated for this. Now they learn, for example, to tolerate having biosensors held against their skin to monitor reactions or moisture loss.

Viktor Reinhardt, a veteran primate researcher who now advises the Animal Welfare Institute in Washington DC, backs the new trend. "It should be encouraged everywhere," he says. "If you work with an animal instead of against it, it has no reason to struggle."

In the early 1990s, Reinhardt taught rhesus macaques to present their arms outside the cage for injections or taking blood samples. "I'm confident the idea of training animals to cooperate in research procedures has already taken off, and that it will become more accepted," he says.