Without Animal Research…

Most of the nation’s 580,000 insulin-dependent diabetics wouldn’t be insulin dependent…they would be dead. The 200,000 arthritics who receive hip placements each year would be confined to wheelchairs. There would be no hope of finding a safe and effective vaccine against AIDS. There would be no kidney dialysis to extend the lives of the more than 547,000 victims of end- stage renal (kidney) disease. The development of urgently needed new drugs to treat heart disease, cancer and a host of other diseases would be severely curtailed.

Research Partners The similarities in human & canine medications go beyond the over- the-counter products to include prescription meds as well. Ex) Your dog has a bladder infection the vet may order an antibiotic amoxicillin. The same amoxicillin your Dr. would order for you if you had a bladder infection. Ex) To treat an eye infection in your dog the vet may use Atropine drops, the same drops your Dr. uses to dilate your pupils during an eye exam. Ex) Your dog is treated with a shot of hydrocortisone for a case of dermatitis. The same shot you might get if you rolled around in Poison Ivy!

Does it work the other way around? Starting in the 1980’s it does work in reverse. We can be treated with some animal medications. Ex) Ivermectin (canine heartworm preventative) is the first, but not the only drug used to treat dogs that have been adapted to combat a human disease another veterinary worming agent (levanusole), started being used on humans also. Scientists noticed it was a stimulant to the immune system. So this stimulant is used in conjunction with a chemotherapy drug 5-FU. It produced therapeutic effects in advanced colon cancer patients (death rate reduced by 1/3).

Cont’d Human pharmaceutical companies are currently working on antibody therapies for human cancers. If we can build a feline leukemia vaccine, hopefully one day we can be able to build a leukemia vaccine for humans!