Contribution of experimental animals in biomedical research

Abstract

Experimental animal models are mostly vertebrate animals used as living simulations to study human and animal diseases to learn host-pathogen interaction, underlying mechanisms of biological systems for its functioning, understand pathogenesis and finally find appropriate remedies for human and animal sufferings. These experimental animals in biomedical research is immense for helping in the creation of the world's first vaccine, which in turn helped in the eradication of smallpox. Thereafter number of studies with monkeys, dogs, and mice led to the development of polio vaccines and drugs used to combat cancer, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer's, hepatitis, malaria, etc. would not have been possible without using these animals in research. The selection of an animal as a model for research is critical for the reliability of the outcomes and must have a high contract validity referring to the ability required to mimic the mechanism of the target species under investigation. In this context, Rat and mice are the most widely animal species used as animal models globally owing to their ease in handling, and housing, as well as their high homologous to humans. Furthermore, the right choice of an animal model to target species is very important to avoid tragedies in human populations.