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Experimental Design & Analysis

Research using animals in only legal in the UK and EU if there is no alternative method. Any scientific technique or method should only be used when it is appropriate to what the researcher hopes to discover. Research on living animals is carried out when it will reveal information which cannot be obtained in other ways. Studies may look at the behaviour of animals in a particular environment, or in response to a particular condition, as part of the experiment.

In the Forced Swim Test for example mice can be seen to respond to antidepressant drugs by how long they swim before giving up and floating.

Research often uses isolated tissues from animals to study the interaction of cells within the body. While these studies do not involve experiments on living animals, the animals used are bred specifically for scientific purposes, and this work also classes as animal experimentation. Other techniques, such as cell culture, rely on products derived from laboratory animals. Below are some examples of common laboratory techniques which involve animals, along with information about how experiments can be designed, and the data produced analysed.

The National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research has more comprehensive resources on experimental design and analysis.


Last edited: 4 March 2021 10:27

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