Animal testing on invertebrates

Overview article Main article: Animal testing

Most animal testing involves invertebrates, especially Drosophila melanogaster, a fruit fly, and Caenorhabditis elegans, a nematode. These animals offer scientists many advantages over vertebrates, including their short life cycle, simple anatomy and the ease with which large numbers of individuals may be studied. Invertebrates are often cost-effective, as thousands of flies or nematodes can be housed in a single room.

With the exception of some cephalopods in the European Union, invertebrate species are not protected under most animal research legislation, and therefore the total number of invertebrates used remains unknown.

Main uses

Animal testing

Main articles
Animal testing Alternatives to animal testing Animal testing regulations History of animal testing History of model organisms IACUC Laboratory animal sources Pain and suffering in laboratory animals Testing cosmetics on animals Toxicology testing Vivisection
Testing on
Invertebrates Frogs Primates Rabbits Rodents
Issues
Medical research Animal rights Animal welfare Animals (Scientific Procedures) Great ape research ban International primate trade
Cases
Brown Dog affair Cambridge University primates Pit of despair Silver Spring monkeys UCR 1985 laboratory raid Unnecessary Fuss
Companies
Charles River Laboratories Fortrea Inotiv Jackson Laboratory Nafovanny UK lab animal suppliers
Groups/campaigns
AALAS AAAS ALF Americans for Medical Progress Boyd Group Cruelty Free International Dr. Hadwen Trust Foundation for Biomedical Research FRAME National Anti-Vivisection Society New England Anti-Vivisection Society PETA Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine Primate Freedom Project Pro-Test SPEAK campaign SHAC Speaking of Research Understanding Animal Research
Writers/activists
Tipu Aziz Michael Balls Neal D. Barnard Colin Blakemore Simon Festing Gill Langley Ingrid Newkirk Bernard Rollin Jerry Vlasak Syed Ziaur Rahman
Categories
Animal testing Animal rights Animal welfare
v t e

Research on invertebrates is the foundation for current understanding of the genetics of animal development. C. elegans is especially valuable as the precise lineage of all the organism's 959 somatic cells is known, giving a complete picture of how this organism goes from a single cell in a fertilized egg, to an adult animal. The genome of this nematode has also been fully sequenced and any one of these genes can easily be inactivated through RNA interference, by feeding the worms antisense RNA. A major success in the work on C. elegans was the discovery that particular cells are programmed to die during development, leading to the discovery that programmed cell death is an active process under genetic control. The simple nervous system of this nematode allows the effects of genetics on the development of nerves to be studied in detail. However, the lack of an adaptive immune system and the simplicity of its organs prevent C. elegans from being used in medical research such as vaccine development.

The fly D. melanogaster is the most widely used animal in genetic studies. This comes from the simplicity of breeding and housing the flies, which allows large numbers to be used in experiments. Molecular biology is relatively simple in these organisms and a huge variety of mutant and genetically modified flies have been developed. Fly genetics has been vital in the study of development, the cell cycle, behavior, and neuroscience. The similarities in the basic biochemistry of all animals allows flies to be used as simple systems to investigate the genetics of conditions such as heart disease and neurodegenerative disease. However, like nematodes, D. melanogaster is not widely used in applied medical research, as the fly immune system differs greatly from that found in humans, and diseases in flies can be very different from diseases in humans.

Other uses of invertebrates include studies on social behavior.

References

Andre, RG, RA Wirtz, and YT Das (1989). "Insect Models for Biomedical Research" Archived October 19, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. In: Nonmammalian Animal Models for Biomedical Research, AD Woodhead (Editor), CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL. Retrieved November 13, 2008.
Horvath, Kelsey; Angeletti, Dario; Nascetti, Giuseppe; Carere, Claudio (2013). "Invertebrate welfare: an overlooked issue". Annali dell'Istituto Superiore di Sanità. 49 (1): 9–17. doi:10.4415/ANN_13_01_04. ISSN 2384-8553. PMID 23535125.
^ Schulenburg H, Kurz CL, Ewbank JJ (2004). "Evolution of the innate immune system: the worm perspective". Immunol. Rev. 198: 36–58. doi:10.1111/j.0105-2896.2004.0125.x. PMID 15199953.
Lee J, Nam S, Hwang SB, et al. (2004). "Functional genomic approaches using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a model system". J. Biochem. Mol. Biol. 37 (1): 107–13. doi:10.1016/j.cbpc.2004.06.015. PMID 14761308. Archived from the original on 2007-10-22.
McCarthy JV (2003). "Apoptosis and development". Essays Biochem. 39: 11–24. doi:10.1042/bse0390011. PMID 14585071.
Seifert M, Schmidt E, Baumeister R (2006). "The genetics of synapse formation and function in Caenorhabditis elegans". Cell Tissue Res. 326 (2): 273–85. doi:10.1007/s00441-006-0277-2. PMID 16896949.
Dietzl G, Chen D, Schnorrer F, et al. (2007). "A genome-wide transgenic RNAi library for conditional gene inactivation in Drosophila". Nature. 448 (7150): 151–6. Bibcode:2007Natur.448..151D. doi:10.1038/nature05954. PMID 17625558.
Marsh JL, Thompson LM (2004). "Can flies help humans treat neurodegenerative diseases?". BioEssays. 26 (5): 485–96. doi:10.1002/bies.20029. PMID 15112229.
Bier E, Bodmer R (2004). "Drosophila, an emerging model for cardiac disease". Gene. 342 (1): 1–11. doi:10.1016/j.gene.2004.07.018. PMID 15527959.
Leclerc V, Reichhart JM (2004). "The immune response of Drosophila melanogaster". Immunol. Rev. 198: 59–71. doi:10.1111/j.0105-2896.2004.0130.x. PMID 15199954.
Mylonakis E, Aballay A (2005). "Worms and flies as genetically tractable animal models to study host-pathogen interactions". Infect. Immun. 73 (7): 3833–41. doi:10.1128/IAI.73.7.3833-3841.2005. PMC 1168613. PMID 15972468.

External links

FlyBase Main Drosophila research database.
WormBase Main C. elegans research database.

Animal rights

Topics (overviews, concepts, issues, cases)

Overviews

Concepts

Issues

Animal agriculture	Animal product Battery cage Bile bear Chick culling Crocodile farm Concentrated animal feeding operation Fish farming Fur farming Fur trade Insect farming Intensive animal farming Intensive pig farming Livestock Poultry farming Slaughterhouse Wildlife farming Working animal Feedback (pork industry) Foam depopulation Ventilation shutdown
Animal testing	Alternatives to animal testing Animal testing on non-human primates Animal testing regulations Great ape research ban Green Scare Huntingdon Life Sciences Model organism Nafovanny Operation Backfire Vivisection
Animal welfare	Animal euthanasia Cruelty to animals Pain in animals Pain in amphibians Pain in cephalopods Pain in crustaceans Pain in fish Pain in invertebrates Pain and suffering in laboratory animals Welfare of farmed insects
Fishing	Commercial fishing Fishing bait Recreational fishing
Wild animals	Culling wildlife Hare coursing Hunting International primate trade Ivory trade Predation problem Seal hunting Wild animal suffering Wildlife management
Other	Abandoned pets Animal sacrifice Animal slaughter Animal trial Animals in sport Live food Live export

Cases

Methodologies

Observances

Advocates (academics, writers, activists)

Academics
and writers

Contemporary

Historical

Activists

Contemporary

Historical

Movement (groups, parties)

Groups

Contemporary

Historical

Parties

Animal Justice Party (Australia)
Animal Politics EU (Europe)
Animal Protection Party of Canada (Canada)
Animal Justice Party of Finland (Finland)
Animals' Party (Sweden)
Animalist Movement (Italy)
Animalist Party with the Environment (Spain)
DierAnimal (Belgium)
Human Environment Animal Protection Party (Germany)
Italian Animalist Party (Italy)
Party for the Animals (Netherlands)
People Animals Nature (Portugal)
V-Partei³ (Germany)

Activism

Animal Rights National Conference

Media (books, films, periodicals, albums)

Books

On Abstinence from Eating Animals (3rd century)
Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes (1824)
The Rights of Animals (1838)
The Ethics of Diet (1883)
Animals' Rights (1892)
Evolutional Ethics and Animal Psychology (1897)
Better-World Philosophy (1899)
The Universal Kinship (1906)
The New Ethics (1907)
Animals, Men and Morals (1971)
Animal Liberation (1975)
The Case for Animal Rights (1983)
Morals, Reason, and Animals (1987)
Zoos and Animal Rights (1993)
Animals, Property, and the Law (1995)
The Lives of Animals (1999)
Eternal Treblinka (2001)
Do Animals Have Rights? (2005)
Striking at the Roots (2008)
An American Trilogy (2009)
An Introduction to Animals and Political Theory (2010)
Animal Rights Without Liberation (2012)
Political Animals and Animal Politics (2014)
Animal (De)liberation (2016)
Sentientist Politics (2018)
Wild Animal Ethics (2020)
Animal Ethics in the Wild (2022)
Making a Stand for Animals (2022)

Films

The Animals Film (1981)
A Cow at My Table (1998)
Shores of Silence (2000)
The Witness (2000)
Meet Your Meat (2002)
Legally Blonde 2 (2003)
The Meatrix (2003)
Peaceable Kingdom (2004)
Earthlings (2005)
Behind the Mask (2006)
Your Mommy Kills Animals (2007)
The Cove (2009)
Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home (2009)
Forks Over Knives (2011)
Vegucated (2011)
An Apology to Elephants (2013)
Speciesism: The Movie (2013)
The Ghosts in Our Machine (2013)
Unlocking the Cage (2016)
Dominion (2018)
Seaspiracy (2021)

Periodicals

Journals	Animal Sentience Between the Species Cahiers antispécistes Etica & Animali Journal of Animal Ethics Relations. Beyond Anthropocentrism The Animals' Defender
Magazines	Arkangel Bite Back Muutoksen kevät No Compromise Satya

Albums

Animal Liberation (1987)
Tame Yourself (1991)
Manifesto (2008)
Salvation of Innocents (2014)
Onward to Freedom (2014)

Fairs and exhibitions

Holocaust on your Plate (2003)

Category ( 139 )

v t e Animal testing
Main articles	Alternatives to animal testing Animal testing on invertebrates Animal testing on frogs Animal testing on non-human primates Animal testing on rabbits Animal testing on rodents Animal testing regulations History of animal testing History of model organisms IACUC Laboratory animal sources Pain and suffering in laboratory animals Testing cosmetics on animals Three Rs Toxicology testing
Testing on	Frogs Invertebrates Primates Rabbits Rodents Syrian hamsters
Issues	Animal rights Animal welfare Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act Biomedical Research Great ape research ban International primate trade Laboratory animal allergy Pain and suffering in laboratory animals
Controversial experiments	Britches Brown Dog affair Cambridge University primates Monkey Drug Trials Pit of despair Silver Spring monkeys Unnecessary Fuss
Companies	Charles River Laboratories Fortrea Inotiv Jackson Laboratory Nafovanny
Groups and campaigns	Anti-Vivisection Coalition Americans for Medical Progress AAAS AALAS Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society Animal Free Research UK ALF Boyd Group Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing Cruelty Free International PETA ALF Foundation for Biomedical Research National Anti-Vivisection Society New England Anti-Vivisection Society Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine Primate Freedom Project Pro-Test SHAC SPEAK Speaking of Research Stop Sequani Animal Testing Research Defence Society Understanding Animal Research
Writers and activists	Colin Blakemore Carl Cohen Gill Langley Ingrid Newkirk Neal D. Barnard Jerry Vlasak Simon Festing Tipu Aziz
Legislation	Animal testing regulations Animal Experimentation Convention 1986 (Council of Europe) Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (UK) Animal Welfare Act 1999 (NZ) Animal Welfare Act of 1966 (US) Directive 2010/63/EU (EU)

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