ASTHMA GUINEA PIG UNI TESTING
AUNIVERSITY has defended its use of guinea pigs in experiments that induce asthma-style attacks. More than 50,000 animals were used in research by scientists at Cardiff University in 2016, including 43,568 mice, 1,940 rats, two guinea pigs, 4,736 fish, eight pigeons and 10 amphibians.
Now tests on guinea pigs in 2018 and 2017 have been detailed in the American Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.
According to the journal, the experiments were to see whether the method of delivery altered the effectiveness of a substance.
In one experiment, male guinea pigs were encased in a perspex chamber where they breathed in the substances.
When the animals were subjected to tests using molecules called lipopolysaccharide they suffered breathing difficulties that lasted four hours. After the experiments the animals were killed.
The journal said they were “sacrificed by an overdose of sodium pentobarbitone”.
Cardiff Animal Rights criticised the university’s tests.
“Asthma attacks are incredibly distressing, as many who have experienced this will be fully aware,” a spokesman said.
“To force a small animal like a guinea pig to endure this kind of breathing difficulty for four hours is a shocking act of cruelty.
“The fear these animals must experience is unimaginable, and we at Cardiff Animal Rights, although sadly not surprised, are saddened that this kind of barbarity is still taking place in the name of science.”
They are calling on Cardiff University to scrap its methods “and move forward into humane, nonanimal research”.
Cardiff University said all of its animal research was designed to alleviate disease.
A spokeswoman said: “Asthma is the most common serious childhood illness and still causes about 2,000 deaths a year in the UK.
“Animal research was used to develop the medicines in the inhalers used by many people, including children, today.
“The two mainstays of asthma treatment are the ‘reliever’ inhalers, such as ventolin, and the ‘preventer’ inhalers such as flixotide.
“The development of inhalers followed work in the 1960s on the lungs of guinea pigs which led to a greater understanding of the role of chemicals released by tissues when normal biological functions are disrupted. In 1979 substances called leukotrienes were discovered to be the principal cause of the symptoms of allergic and inflammatory conditions. Further studies with guinea pigs and then primates resulted in the development of leukotriene receptor antagonists, the first new type of asthma treatment for 20 years.”
The use of animals in research remained “essential”.
“All animal-related research work at Cardiff University is carried out under the strict conditions imposed by UK legislation, including stringent ethical scrutiny,” the university spokeswoman said.
“We are fully compliant with and support the intention and purpose of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.
“Without research involving animals we would have no modern anaesthetics, hip replacements or life-support for premature babies.
“There would be no heart or kidney transplants, no kidney dialysis or heart pacemakers, no treatment for diabetes, no vaccines for polio, diphtheria or malaria – or for a number of animal diseases.”
As few animals as possible were used at the university and alternative research methods used where possible, it said.
After “procedures” some creatures were rehomed or returned to the wild. “Most animals are killed in accordance with the legal conditions of the relevant project licences. This is done via a humane method,” the spokeswoman said.