According to Humane Society International, animal
testing is known as the experiments using non-human animals as subjects. The
common experimental animals include mice, fish, rats, rabbits, hamsters, dogs
and non-human primates such as monkeys and chimpanzees. And there are
approximately more than 115 million animals are used in laboratory experiments
per year.
A lot of animals are suffering form animal experiment every year. According to the article "Harm and Suffering" published by New England Anti-Vivisection Society, in research and testing,
animals are subjected to experiments that can include everything from testing
new drugs to infecting with diseases, poisoning for toxicity testing, burning
skin, causing brain damage, implanting electrodes into the brain, maiming,
blinding, and other painful and invasive procedures. Many, if not most, animals die
before the end of the study. With the exception of chimpanzees, animals who
survive their use in research and testing can be killed after the study is
completed.
Because of a lot of negative aspects of animal experiment, the scientists is working on developing alternatives to it, and they finally have come up with a new method that could replace the animal testing - organ on a chip.
In fact, there are a lot of advantages: first, it cost less. According
to [1]Kevin
Healy, who is a bioengineering professor at the University of
California-Berkeley said that “It takes about $5 billion on average to develop
a drug, and 60% or that figure comes from upfront costs in the research and development
phase. Using a well-designed model of a human organ could significantly cut the
cost and time of bringing a new drug to market.” Second, the biochip works as real heart. It make a regular heartbeat of 55 to 80 times per minute.
The development of this new technology will eventually lead to decrease in sacrificing of innocent animals.
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