There is a very special brown mouse in a small plastic cage on the table in Fabio Rossi’s lab at the University of B.C. The mouse carries the mutation for muscular dystrophy and is being used for biomedical research into human neuromuscular diseases.
The research requires that venom from the deadly Australian tiger snake be injected into the mouse’s muscle tissue with a fine syringe for study into its regenerative response.
“It burns,” allows Rossi, a professor of medical genetics and director of UBC’s Biomedical Research Centre. “I’ve stuck myself a few times. I know what the animals feel. If these poisons reach your heart, you’re a dead man. But the amounts we inject would never reach the heart.”
On a five-step scale of pain and suffering, the procedure ranks second-highest, causing moderate to severe distress or discomfort.
Rossi doesn’t relish doing such things to furry little creatures, but insists it’s necessary for research aimed at benefiting human health.
“They’re not perfect. They’re not humans, of course. But they’re close enough that they are our best shot at finding places where we can intervene in human diseases to make it better.”
According to the Ottawa-based Canadian Council on Animal Care, member institutions used 4.3 million animals in research, teaching, and testing in Canada in 2016. That’s a 21-per-cent increased over the previous year, and a 50-per-cent increase over five years ago. Three types of animals — fish, mice and cattle — collectively accounted for 84 per cent of the total. Animals were researched in labs but also in the wild.
Council spokeswoman Sandra MacInnis said increases in funding can influence the creation and expansion of research programs and an increase in animal-based science. Other factors behind changes in animal use may include changes in funding priorities, regulatory changes, numbers and types of institutions certified by the council, development and implementation of new technologies, and changes in scientific interests.
Also behind the increase is a jump in the number of animals used in non-invasive studies, including feeding trials and animals used to train technicians, she added.
Even categories representing less than one per cent of the total involved a lot of animals. A total of 15,093 dogs — almost twice the number of cats — were used in research across Canada, along with 7,556 primates (mostly macaque monkeys) and 6,372 horses.
