GLP Scientific Consulting, Unionville, Pennsylvania, USA.
DeHaven Veterinary Solutions, LLC, El Dorado Hills, California, USA.
ILAR J. 2021 Dec 31;62(1-2):7-16. doi: 10.1093/ilar/ilab020.
Animals have been closely observed by humans for at least 17 000 years to gain critical knowledge for human and later animal survival. Routine scientific observations of animals as human surrogates began in the late 19th century driven by increases in new compounds resulting from synthetic chemistry and requiring characterization for potential therapeutic utility and safety. Statistics collected by the United States Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and United Kingdom Home Office show that animal usage in biomedical research and teaching activities peaked after the mid-20th century and thereafter fell precipitously until the early 21st century, when annual increases (in the UK) were again observed, this time driven by expansion of genetically modified animal technologies. The statistics also show a dramatic transfer of research burden in the 20th and 21st centuries away from traditional larger and more publicly sensitive species (dogs, cats, non-human primates, etc) towards smaller, less publicly sensitive mice, rats, and fish. These data show that new technology can produce multi-faceted outcomes to reduce and/or to increase annual animal usage and to redistribute species burden in biomedical research. From these data, it is estimated that annual total vertebrate animal usage in biomedical research and teaching in the United States was 15 to 25 million per year during 2001-2018. Finally, whereas identification and incorporation of non-animal alternatives are products of, but not an integral component of, the animal research cycle, they replace further use of animals for specific research and product development purposes and create their own scientific research cycles, but are not necessarily a substitute for animals or humans for discovery, acquisition, and application of new (eg, previously unknown and/or unsuspected) knowledge critical to further advance human and veterinary medicine and global species survival.
动物一直是人类密切观察的对象，至少已有 17000 年的历史，以获取对人类和后来动物生存至关重要的知识。随着合成化学产生的新化合物的增加，需要对其进行潜在治疗用途和安全性的特征描述，因此从 19 世纪末开始，以人类为替代的动物常规科学观察开始兴起。美国农业部动植物卫生检验局和英国内政部收集的统计数据显示，在 20 世纪中叶之后，动物在生物医学研究和教学活动中的使用达到顶峰，此后急剧下降，直到 21 世纪初，英国再次观察到年度增长，这次增长是由基因修饰动物技术的扩展驱动的。这些统计数据还显示，在 20 世纪和 21 世纪，研究负担从传统的更大、更受公众关注的物种（狗、猫、非人灵长类动物等）急剧转移到更小、受公众关注度较低的老鼠、大鼠和鱼类身上。这些数据表明，新技术可以带来多方面的结果，减少和/或增加年度动物使用量，并在生物医学研究中重新分配物种负担。根据这些数据，估计在 2001-2018 年期间，美国每年在生物医学研究和教学中使用的脊椎动物总数为 1500 万至 2500 万只。最后，尽管非动物替代品的识别和纳入是动物研究周期的产物，但不是其组成部分，它们替代了特定研究和产品开发目的的进一步动物使用，并创造了自己的科学研究周期，但不一定是发现、获取和应用对进一步推进人类和兽医医学以及全球物种生存至关重要的新知识（例如，以前未知和/或未被怀疑）的动物或人类的替代品。
