April 24 marks World Day for Laboratory Animals

CAIRO – 24 April 2022: Millions of scientific experiments have been conducted on different animals throughout history to serve humans. The results of animal experiments are often related to some human factors. Animals are an indication of what can happen to the human body. 

Modern medicine's understanding of physiology and genetics are widely based on animal experiments that could prove or negate scientific theories.

The American World Day website mentioned in 1979 that a number of doctors around the world decided to announce April 24 of each year as the World Day for Laboratory Animals.  April 24 has been chosen because it marks the birthday of Hugh Dowding, the British air chief marshal who was an ardent anti-vivisection. After World War II, he served as NAVS president, and his wife, Muriel, was a member of the NAVS Council.

According to statistics provided by NAVS, nearly 100 million animals suffer and die in laboratories every year, although there are advanced alternatives that can replace animal testing.

World Day for Laboratory Animals focuses on raising awareness about harsh animal testing and advanced non-animal alternatives that are more effective, reliable, and non-lethal.

ET reviews some of the craziest animal testing experiences in history:

Sugars and spiders:

In 1995, a group of NASA scientists studied the effects of several sugars on spiders' web-weaving abilities. The researchers sought to determine the levels of networks that were created after the spiders were injected. The results showed that the spiders formed scattered and non-tangled webs of tissue after being injected with sugary substances, in contrast when feeding on grass, where they spun perfectly complete webs. While on steroids they spun quickly and poorly, and after consuming caffeine they became totally unable to weave. 

Embryos in space:

In 1991, American physician, Dorothy Spangenberg, was studying the potential effects of zero gravity on human fetuses. If her research had been tested on actual human embryos, it would have been morally wrong, so Dorothy and her team sent 4,782 jellyfish embryos aboard the space shuttle Columbia instead, releasing them into orbit and observing the results. 

In the beginning, the jellyfish adapted to the environment and multiplied, reaching 60,000. As the jellyfish returned to Earth, however, Dorothy found that they suffered vertigo, failing to adapt to Earth's gravity. The results proved that if human embryos moved to space, grew old, and then returned to Earth, they will be subject to failure to acclimatize to Earth's gravity.

First monkey transplant:

American researcher Robert White performed the world's first successful monkey transplant in the early 1970s, in a carefully designed process. White removed the head of a monkey from its body and placed it on a decapitated specimen. The monkey woke up and tried to bite a surgeon, and the experiment passed successfully.

Female pregnancy tests on rabbits:

Before the advent of modern pregnancy tests discovered in the 1970s, the only way to determine whether a woman was pregnant or not, was the rabbit test discovered by American physician Maurice Friedman in early 1931 at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

The pregnancy test required the doctor to inject a rabbit with a woman’s urine, to determine whether the woman was pregnant or not. If the rabbit’s ovaries showed the presence of the pregnancy hormone; The test is positive.