Top 5 Reasons For Using Rats For Experiments

For many years, rats have become a standard specimen to be used in clinical experiments to ensure the safety of the substance to be tested on humans. But one question that comes up is why do rats become the main subject for many experiments that are to be conducted by researchers?

Or perhaps it's due to their genetics that give a fast response which makes them ideal subjects for most experiments? and maybe in some cases, the results were not to their expectation therefore it's considered good to use them as pawns in experiments.

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Due to these reasons, it is normal for many researchers to always choose rats as you would not want the same fate to happen to humans which is death. In this article, we would share with you the top 5 reasons why rats are used in many experiments.

1. Rats Are Small And Easy To Handle

The physical size of the rat has made the whole process of conducting the experiments much easier and more convenient. You can imagine if you were to do the same procedures on something bigger like a horse then the whole situation will be a lot different.

It will be easier to get a grip on a small rat that will not put up much of a fight when handling it. The whole experiment will be at ease and fewer problems will arise.

2. Rats Does Not Pose A Threat

In most cases, the experiments that will be done will usually harm the specimen. Because of that, rats have become the main choice of animal to conduct an experiment since the only thing they can do to you is bite you. It will not cause significant harm to the human performing the experiment.

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If the animal was a lot larger in size, the same thing will probably not happen and extra caution must be taken each time to avoid any unwanted accidents.

3. Rats Can Easily Be Bred

Rats are not only easy to be handled but also can reproduce much more at a fast rate so that they can be used again in further experiments. Due to this, rats have become the main stray animals to be used as more can be reproduced if the experiments did not go so well.

The only downside is that a rat does not have a very long lifespan but this is also a good reason why rats will be chosen instead.

4. Similarity With Humans

The good news is that rats have a lot of similarities with humans making it more reliable to conduct the experiments so that the right results can be obtained. A rat has almost the same genetics, biology, and behavior in comparison to a human.

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On top of that, a rat also has almost 90 percent similarity of genes with a human. Therefore, rats have the perfect trait genetically to be used in experiments.

5. Can Be Modified Genetically

Finally, the good thing about rats is that you can also modify them genetically which researchers can add and remove specific genes in the rats. This will influence the overall behavior and characteristics of the rats to make them suitable for the objectives of the experiments.

The whole process can be done according to what the researchers are trying to achieve in the experiments. It will be much safer to test it on a rat first before testing the effects on humans.

Source:

• Facts Factory

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