Animal testing

“ The work of this Division is ample proof of the error in the opinion that an army without horses would have no need for veterinary services. When it is considered that there are at least 80 diseases which are communicable from the lower animals to man, and that the laboratory animal is a necessary part of research dealing with human diseases, the importance of veterinary knowledge and services becomes apparent. ”

“ Direct contact between healthy and diseased animals and the transport of spores, by combs, brushes, etc., favour contagion. The disease may not only be conveyed from one animal to another of the same species, but from the ox to man, and, with somewhat greater difficulty, from the ox to the horse. Cases of transmission from the ox to the sheep, pig, and dog have also been recorded. ”

“ WHEN EXAMINING A HORSE, the blanket or harness should be removed. The horse should have on an open bridle or halter, and the attendant should give it as much freedom of the head as possible. The examiner should examine each limb carefully and note any symptom of disease that may be present. The attendant should walk the animal straight away from the person making the examination, toward, and past him, so that the animal's movements can be observed from both sides, from behind and in front. ”

“ But while preferable to the abandoning of the disease to its natural course, it is always to be strongly condemned, where it is possible to adopt the method which detects the sick animal in the incipient stage by thermometry, and does away with the infection by its removal, followed by disinfection. ”

“ Therefore, appropriate selection of marker traits to measure and subsequent weighing of each measure ment in a selection index should be an effective method to improve the general disease resistance of pigs. Obviously, additional research is essential to identify marker traits that are easily measured at low cost, have moderate to high heritabilities, and are highly correlated to an animal 's ability to resist infection by various pathogens. ”

“ It must have satisfactory stables and operating rooms for small and large animals, for the experimental and observational study of animal diseases is the logical outcome of laboratory research. It is another intermediate station on the way to human pathology. It frequently presents such strikingly clear solutions of difficult problems and permits us to introduce the comparative method which has been so fruitful in the biological sciences. ”

“ Where the act of inducing the disease is not itself painful—as in ordinary inoculation, and in feeding-experiments—the licensee must hold, together with his 269 license, Certificate A, because the animal is not anæsthetised. ”

“ How about taking biopsies on the male ferrets rather than sacrificing them. Then maybe we can see what is happening, I mean what the progression of the disease is, in the same animal. You could snip out a piece of ovary on some females too!"
"It isn't easy but we can do it."
"How about the other animals?" ”

“ The direct experimental inoculation from horse to horse infallibly conveys the disease so that the flies are not needed to pass the parasite through an intermediate stage of its existence, but merely to carry it. It follows that no particular fly is the bearer but any insect may carry the infection from a bite or sore to inoculate it on a sore or by a bite on a fresh animal. ”

“ When attempting to evaluate factors that may be related to the occurrence of SE on the farm, it should be kept in mind that a variety of stimuli in the animal's total environment can affect the level of susceptibility existing at any given time. ”

“ Its advent in Europe as a new disease in the second third of the 18th century, its steady spread, its continued prevalence, and extension, concur with the infection of kennels and districts by the introduction of a sick dog, in demonstrating its purely contagious nature, and this implies a living microbe transferred from animal to animal. If any doubt remained it must be dispelled by the inoculations which have been constantly successful when made on young puppies, or dogs that have not previously suffered, and on cats. A first attack confers immunity. ”

“ The animals generally employed in the study of the pathogenic properties of the various micro-organisms are:
Preparation.—Before inoculation, the experimental animals should be carefully examined, to avoid the risk of employing such as are already diseased: since it must be remembered that in a state of nature, as well as in captivity, the animals employed for laboratory inoculations are subject to infection by various animal and vegetable parasites, and in some instances such infection presents no symptoms which are obvious to the casual examination ”

“ The receptivity of the animal exposed is of first importance. Young animals are the most susceptible. The small rodents, the mouse, Guinea pig and rabbit are susceptible in the order named, followed by the sheep and horse and these again by the camel and ox. Among the wild herbivora the goat, deer and stag have a high susceptibility. Man is less susceptible yet contracts the disease readily by inoculation, inhalation or ingestion. Swine and dogs are comparatively little susceptible, yet they often contract the disease by eating the carcasses or discharges of anthrax animals. ”

“ Radical treatment for the disease is far from generally satisfactory. Too often the affected animal is still in the environment which has tended strongly to its development, and it is impossible to secure a satisfactory change. ”

“ In the absence of any systematic and efficient government protection in this line, the stock owner can only protect his sound herd by the rigid exclusion of all animals that are not of his own breeding, or in case of purchase, by an exhaustive inquiry as to the occurrence of sickness or deaths in the herd from which he buys, and by the professional examination and test of every animal to be bought. Even then he must promptly separate, test, and, if necessary destroy any animal that proves unthrifty, or which by cough, diarrhœa, wheezing or other sign gives evidence of probable tuberculosis. ”

“ Though the chief control work directed by the Biological Survey is concerned with injurious rodents and predatory mammals, it sometimes becomes necessary to investigate cases of damage by other classes of animal life, including moles, crawfishes, and land crabs, and to recommend measures for their control. ”

“ Far more important than any information as to animal affinities revealed by blood tests is the fact that the classification of animals based on blood tests is essentially the same as that based on morphology. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that these two modes of classification had revealed quite contrary arrangements, what a blow to our confidence in the validity of evolution! ”

“ But some human diseases do not attack animals, and in the case of diseases that may be given to animals it is frequently uncertain whether the disease produced in the animal by such inoculation is identical with the human disease in question, owing to the difference of symptoms in the different animals. ”

“ They are infectious when transmitted, not alone by contact but through the atmosphere. They are epizootic because they tend to attack animals generally or a given genus or family of animals generally when these are exposed to the infection. They are enzootic when confined to the animals in a given locality, the soil or conditions of which are favorable to the preservation of the germ in pathogenic potency, or to the production of a special susceptibility in the animal system. ”

“ The data obtained from these diagnoses is used in the hygiene of the garden and for scientific record.
Included in the laboratory 's work is the testing of animals suspected of having tuberculosis, a test made by subcutaneous injection of tuberculin. All monkeys received by the garden are observed for several days, and a record made of their daily 3 p. m. temperature. They are then tested, and if negative to this test are passed to the general monkey collection. If the test be doubtful, they are either held in quarantine or put on exhibition in isolated cages. ”

“ In examining animals for soundness and especially the horse or dog, the condition of the eye must be made one of the most important subjects of inquiry, as a disease or defect may render the animal altogether unsuited to the object to which it is destined. As in every other field of diagnosis thoroughness is largely dependent on the adoption of a system which will stand in the way of any flaw being too hastily overlooked. ”

“ Those diseases resulting from specific causes, either natural to the race or artificially produced by the animal itself in a state of morbid derangement, are most frequent and fatal, as witnessed in distemper, rabies, mange, &c. The intimate connexion existing between the diseases of our canine friends and those of the human race, as also the strong similarity in the action of many drugs over the two systems, render the study of one branch almost synonymous with that of the other. ”

“ Every operator of a facility who uses any animal for experimentation involving biological agents or toxins at his facility shall comply with such requirements as may be prescribed in relation to animal containment. ”

“ In practice all the different ingredients must be accurately tested, standardized and used in exact quantities, and tests must also be run as controls with a known normal blood of an animal of the same species as the one examined and with a known positive blood. ”

“ Rest of the animal is absolutely essential while the disease continues, and is itself an effectual remedy in mild cases.
Besides the diseases enumerated, there are occasional epidemics, such as black tongue, black foot, or foot root, &c., which carry off great numbers of animals. Remedies for these are frequently not discovered, and the epidemic is allowed to run its course unchecked. The only preventives are such care, food, and management as the experienced herdsman knows to be best suited to the maintenance of the health and thrift of his stock. ”

“ With advancing knowledge of veterinary medicine the subject of prophylaxis is steadily assuming a more important place, and especially in the classes of enzootic and epizootic diseases. Indeed for the fatal infectious diseases of animals one can fairly estimate the medical intelligence of the people by the extent to which therapeutic treatment is still allowed. ”

“ The relation of bacteriology and parasitology to the infectious avian diseases as mentioned before, is fundamental. If bacteriologists and protozoologists will enter upon this field of avian diseases as a basis for their research in their respective fields, the results of their investigations will lead to an improvement in the conditions of our poultry yards, and give facts which are necessary before any treatment can be found. With men of this character at work upon avian pathology, success is inevitable. ”

“ Until provision can be made for the enforcement of our laws against glanders, all who handle horses should be warned of the danger of working about strange solipeds, or those that show suspicious symptoms, while they have any sores on the hands, and in case they must run any risk of contact with infection, to promptly wash hands and face in a solution of hydrargyrum chloride (1:2000) , or carbolic acid (2:100) . Animals of susceptible races (sheep, etc.) which have lived with glandered horses should be made to pass the mallein test before they can be put upon the market for human food. ”

“ Man, dog, cat, horse, cattle, sheep, goat, hog, deer, etc., are subject to the disease either naturally or experimentally. The disease is confined commonly to dogs, because the dog naturally attacks animals of his own species and thus keeps the disease limited mainly to his own kind. Naturally the dog follows this rule, but on the other hand, in the latter stages of the disease he usually goes to the other extreme and even attacks his own master, etc. The dogs that are the most dangerous and do the greatest damage are of the vicious breeds. ”

“ With the large poultry farms it may appear that careful observation of hygienic measures involve too much time, but under many circumstances and especially at this infant stage in our knowledge concerning avian diseases the application of searching and delicate parasitological and bacteriological tests are often necessary to determine the proper method of procedure. ”

“ In view of the diffusible nature of the germ, however, we must recognize that all secretions may be quickly contaminated as soon as they are exposed, and therefore no product of a sick or suspected sheep can be held to be safe, and all should be treated as presumably infected. The most dangerous products and those most liable to convey the disease are wool, hides, litter, buildings, yards, covers, parks, railway cars, boats, manure, urine and milk.
Living creatures like men, dogs, cats, birds, vermin, flies and other predacious insects are occasional bearers of infection. ”

“ Yet bovine animals are by far the most susceptible, by them it is mainly propagated, and upon them comes the greatest mortality. Infection, however, extends to all other ruminants,—sheep, goats, deer, elk, antelopes, gazelles, aurochs, yaks, camels, dromedaries, buffaloes, etc. Swine which show a pouch on the left sac of the stomach show a certain susceptibility, it killed the peccaries in the Jardin des Plants, Paris, and Viseur in France and Pluning in Sumatra, claim to have seen cases in the domestic pig. The horse, dog, rabbit, bird, and man are immune. ”

“ In animals, especially, the evidence was so frequent and clear, animal following animal in the same stall, and eating from the same infected manger, only to be infected in turn, and two animals stalled together, and licking the same manger with their prehensile tongues, transmitting the infection with certainty the one to the other, were facts that could not possibly be ignored. Other cattle in the same building might escape for a length of time, but the eating in common from the same fatal manger, by a tuberculous and a healthy animal, quickly sealed the fate of the latter. ”