Use of live animals in the curricula of U.S. medical schools in 1994

Abstract

In 1994, the AAMC surveyed the 126 U.S. medical schools to obtain data on live-animal use in the undergraduate medical curriculum. The questions focused entirely on the use of live animals in teaching laboratories that are either required or optional parts of the undergraduate medical curriculum. Seventy-seven of the 125 responding schools used live animals in one or more courses; of the required courses, animals were most often used in physiology courses (49 schools), followed by surgical clerkships (21) and pharmacology courses (13). Although these data show that the majority of schools used live animals in their curricula, the data also show that the majority of schools did not use live animals as part of the teaching of any specific course of discipline in 1994. The animals most often used were dogs (54 schools) and pigs (12). Forty-three of the 77 schools that used live animals offered a variety of alternatives to their use. The respondents' data indicate a steady decline in the number of schools using live animals in teaching labs since before 1982. The reasons most often reported for discontinuing live-animal use were expense, changes in curriculum or curriculum focus, and lack of time, faculty, or space. Several other reasons were also listed, but live animals' value in teaching was seldom a factor. Only 15 schools indicated they had experienced harassment, protests, or legal actions arising from their use of live animals in the previous two years.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)