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« Scientists use animals to learn more about health problems that affect both humans and animals, and to assure the safety of new medical treatments. M edical researchers need to understand health problems before they can develop   ways to treat them. Some diseases and health problems involve processes that   can only be studied in a living organism. Animals are necessary to medical   research when it is impractical or unethical to use humans. Animals make good research subjects for a variety of reasons. Animals are   biologically similar to humans. They are susceptible to many of the same health   problems, and they have short life­cycles so they can easily be studied   throughout their whole life­span or across several generations. In addition,   scientists can easily control the environment around the animal (diet,   temperature, lighting, etc.), which would be difficult to do with people. However,   the most important reason why animals are used is that it would be wrong to   deliberately expose human beings to health risks in order to observe the course   of a disease. Animals are used in research to develop drugs and medical procedures to treat   diseases. Scientists may discover such drugs and procedures using alternative   research methods that do not involve animals. If the new therapy seems   promising, it is tested in animals to see whether it seems to be safe and effective.

  If the results of the animal studies are good, then human volunteers are asked to   take part in a clinical trial. The animal studies are done first to give medical   researchers a better idea of what benefits and complications they are likely to see   in humans. Disease Discovery Heart Disease Heart disease and related conditions affect 52 million Americans and cost our nation $274 billion a year.

These conditions are the number one killers of men, women, and children.

Death rates are declining because of advances in diagnosis, treatment and prevention made through animal research.

The basic mechanisms of heart disease have been studied in dogs, rats, rabbits, cats, sheep, and pigs.

Studies with dogs contributed to our most basic understanding of how to manage heart disease.

Techniques to diagnose the workings of the heart —electrocardiography, cardiac catheters, angiograms, and coronary blood flow measurement—were developed through research using dogs, as were surgical techniques such as cardiac bypass, angioplasty, and heart transplants. HIV/AIDS HIV/AIDS currently affects nearly 1 million Americans.

There are treatments but still no cure for this disease that cripples the immune system and is fatal in all but a handful of cases.

Our understanding of the retrovirus that causes HIV/AIDS comes in part from studies of similar viruses in chickens, cats, and monkeys.

Promising drugs and possible vaccines are tested first in mice and monkeys before being used in clinical trials with human volunteers.. »