Types of Animal Testing

*Disclaimer* This week’s upload does talk about graphic tests animal endure when they are being tested on by humans 

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If you haven’t read last weeks post on my blog, I uncover the history behind animal testing. I discuss where animal testing began, how things changed throughout history, to where animal testing is currently.

Although animal testing is not neccesarily needed due to our abundance of information on products and the rescourses people have on these products, companies still implement animal testing to give their company security by indicating to the public that they have taken preventative measures for their customers to ensure that their products are safe. In this week’s upload, I will discuss the types of animals that endure animal testing as well as the types of animal tests that occur. Like I mentioned before, I do talk about some violent topics, so be cautious as you continue.

This video was taken from PETA and is not mine (PETA, n.d.)

Animals That are Tested on

While there are many animals that are used for animal testing, the most common animals include, “mice, fish, rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, farm animals, birds, cats, dogs, mini-pigs, and non-human primates (monkeys, and in some countries, chimpanzees),” (Humane Society International, 2012). 

As the Humane Society International website stated, around 115 million animals are used worldwide as testing subjects in laboratories every year (Humane Society International, 2012). However, a lot of the animals, such as mice, rats, and birds, “are not covered by even the minimal protections of the Animal Welfare Act and therefore go uncounted,” (PETA, n.d.). After these animals have been used to test a specific topic, they will more often be killed afterwards (PETA, n.d.) 

Environmental Conditions for the Animals

The animals that are often used for tests are kept in small cages where they are unable to move freely. Due to their inhumane kept quarters,

“some animals develop neurotic types of behavior such as incessantly spinning in circles, rocking back and forth, pulling out their own fur, and even biting themselves,” (PETA, n.d.). 

Types of Testing

The American Anti-Vivisection Society reports that there are 13 different types of tests that commonly occur in laboratories to animals: eye irritancy, acute toxicity, repeated dose toxicity, skin corrosivity/irritation, skin sensitization, pharmacokinetics/toxicokinetics and metabolism, dermal penetration, mutagenicity, carcinogenicity, reproductive and developmental toxicity, neurotoxicity, ecotoxicity, and pyrogenicity (American Anti-Vivisection Society, n.d.). 

Eye Irritancy & Skin Corrosivity/Irritation Test

The eye irritancy test, most commonly known as the Draize Test, was designed in 1944 in order to test the irritancy of chemicals an other products entering the eyes (Herschler, 2018). This test is also to test the skin sensitivity and irritation.This test is designed to drop, “concentrated amounts of a test substance into an animal’s eye (while their lids are clipped open) or placing a chemical onto an area where the animal’s skin has been shaved,” (Herschler, 2018).

Animals are then observed for any irritants such as, “ulceration, inflamed/bleeding skin, swollen eyes, and/or blindness,” (Herschler, 2018). It should be noted that this is one of the most common forms of tests animals endure.

The photo to the left was taken from PETA's website that shows what animals look like after chemicals and other products have been put in their eyes (PETA, 2018).

Skin Sensitization Test

Another test to test skin irritancy is a test where, “experimenters inject animals with a test substance multiple times and measure any allergic reaction,” (PETA, n.d.). This test can cause skin reactions of itchiness, ulcerations, and inflamed areas (PETA, n.d.). 

Acute Toxicity & Repeated Dose Toxicity

A very common test that involves testing on animals include the acute toxicity test as well as the repeated dose toxicity. The American Anti-Vivisection Society states that the acute toxicity tests are to, “determine the danger of exposure to a chemical by mouth, skin, or inhalation,”(American Anti-Vivisection Society, n.d.).

Animals that experience high doses of these chemicals and other products due to being force fed, forced to inhale the chemicals/products, or exposed via their skin experience, “severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, convulsions, seizures, paralysis, or bleeding from the nose, mouth, or genitals before they ultimately die or are killed,” (PETA, n.d.). Repeated dose toxicity tests the, "chronic toxic effects, primarily effects on various organ systems, and to establish a no-observed-effect-level," (American Anti-Vivisection Society, n.d.). The picture to the right is from a blog called PETA2 (Kim, 2018).

Pharmacokinetics/Toxicokinetics and Metabolism Test

The next type of test to occur are the pharmacokinetics/toxicokinetics and metabolism test. This is to test if chemicals and products will be toxic once entering the body, experimenters will feed, "single or multiple doses of test substances through force feeding, inhalation, intravenous injection, or through the skin and blood samples are taken to determine the rates of absorption, distribution, excretion, and metabolism," (American Anti-Vivisection Society, n.d.).

Dermal Penetration Test

The next test is dermal penetration. This test is designed to, "analyze the movement of a chemical through the skin and into the bloodstream," (American Anti-Vivisection Society, n.d.). This test requires the animals to be killed after so the experimenters can analyze the amount of the test substance was absorbed into their body.

Mutagenicity Test

Another test that requires animals to be killed afterwards to analyze the substance absorbed is the mutagenicity test. This test involves injecting a test substance into the test subjects. Afterwards, they kill the animals to test the bone marrow for, "increased presence of micronuclei, a sign of chromosomal damage," (American Anti-Vivisection Society, n.d.) which can be cancerous.

Carcinogenicity Test

Another test to determine if certain chemicals or products will impose a threat is called the carcinogenicity test. This test includes animals being given a test chemical/product orally, on the skin, or inhaled for two years. Throughout those two years, they are observed to determine if this chemicals are harmful. However, after the two year span, the animals are killed to be further inspected. (American Anti-Vivisection Society, n.d.).

Reproductive and Developmental Toxicity Test

The next test, reproductive and developmental toxicity, tests the toxicity of test chemicals on pregnant test subjects. The pregnant animals are given doses of the test chemicals throughout their pregnancy (American Anti-Vivisection Society, n.d.). In order to determine if the test chemicals are toxic, "The animals are killed just prior to delivery and the fetuses are examined for any sign of toxic effects by the test substance," (American Anti-Vivisection Society, n.d.).

Neurotoxicity Test

The neurotoxicity tests the if the test chemicals will alter the nervous system in the test subjects. Throughout this test, "the animals are given a single oral dose of a substance and observed for 21 days or they are given doses of the test substance orally on a daily basis for 28 days," (American Anti-Vivisection Society, n.d.). After the animals are given dose(s) of the test chemical, they are observed for changes in their physical and mental behaviors. After the 21-28 days are completed, the animals are killed, "their bodies are evaluated for signs of neurotoxicity," (American Anti-Vivisection Society, n.d.).

Eco-toxicity Test

When chemicals are interdicted into the world, there is a change that they are toxic to the environment. In order to test the toxicity of chemicals towards the environment, the experimenters, use fish to test for short-term and longterm toxic effects (American Anti-Vivisection Society, n.d.). These tests last, "last from seven to more than 200 days and the fish are evaluated for growth, hatching and spawning success, and mortality," (American Anti-Vivisection Society, n.d.).

Pyrogenicity Test

The final test that can be conducted on animals is the pyrogenicity test. This is a test to evaluate an animals body temperature after being exposed to the test chemicals. This test, "seeks to find any possible fever-causing contaminants in items such as vaccines and injectable drugs," (American Anti-Vivisection Society, n.d.).

Effects of Animal Testing

Below I've included a few pictures to show what animals look like after they've been used as test subjects.

The photo above was taken from The Medium in an article discussing why animals testing is wrong (Vang, 2018). This is a good picture to show the small living conditions these animals are forced to live in as well as the harm they have been caused.

This above photo was taken from an article also discussing why animal testing is cruel and should not be taking place (Scientient Media, 2020). The test performed on this mouse was probably the eye irritancy test as that is one of the most common and the injuries are close to its eye.

Looking at photos of this makes me saddened to imagine what these poor animals are going through so we, as humans, are able to look beautiful. In next weeks post, I will discuss the companies that do and do not test on animals, how to figure out which companies do test on animals, as well as why animal testing is unnecessary.

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References

American Anti-Vivisection Society. (n.d.). Testing. Retrieved from https://aavs.org/animals-science/how-animals-are-used/testing/

Herschler, N. (2018, November 29). What is the Draize test?. Retrieved from https://neavs.org/blog/2019/1/23/what-is-the-draize-test

Humane Society International. (2012, October 21). About animal testing. Retrieved from https://www.hsi.org/news-media/about/

Kim. (2018, April 19). Victory: Japan ends poisoning test on dogs; Hundreds of animals saved. Retrieved from https://www.peta2.com/news/japan-ends-dog-poisoning-test/

PETA. (2018, February 20). Hundreds of scientists learn how to spare animals suffering in painful tests. Retrieved from https://www.peta.org.uk/blog/hundreds-scientists-learn-spare-animals-suffering-painful-tests/

PETA. (n.d.). Animal testing: Animals used in experiments. Retrieved from https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/

PETA. (n.d.). Product testing: Toxic and tragic. Retrieved from https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/animals-used-experimentation-factsheets/product-testing-toxic-tragic/

Scientient Media. (2020, February 3). Animal testing is cruel and doesn't work: Here's why. Retrieved from https://sentientmedia.org/animal-testing/

Vang, L. (2018, May 7). Animal testing is wrong. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@lvang145/animal-testing-is-wrong-ff11fea4c556