Jun 24, 2000 - Nearly all veterinary and medical students (94 per cent) found it morally ... Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, which contains the only ...
Downloaded from veterinaryrecord.bmj.com on July 16, 2011 - Published by group.bmj.com
Papers & Articles
Attitude of Swedish veterinary and medical students to animal experimentation J. Hagelin, J. Hau, H. E. Carlsson Nearly all veterinary and medical students (94 per cent) found it morally acceptable to use animals in research and believed it to be a necessity in order to treat human diseases. In contrast with the medical students a substantial proportion of veterinary students (40 per cent) considered themselves animal rights activists. Unlike the medical curriculum, the veterinary curriculum contains a two-week course in laboratory animal medicine, and a higher proportion of the students who had not been through this course was opposed to the use of animals in research than of the students who had completed the course. The course modified the views of half the students; more than 26 per cent of them became more positive towards animal use in research after the course, whereas 3 per cent became more negative.
Veterinary Record (2000) 146, 757-760 J. Hagelin, MS, J. Hau, DrMed, Professor, H. E. Carlsson, PhD, Division of Comparative Medicine, Department of Physiology, Uppsala University, Box 572, SE-75123 Uppsala, Sweden
LABORATORY animal medicine is an increasingly important veterinary speciality, not least because of recent European legislation and the guidelines regulating the use of animals in research. One response has been the recent establishment by the European Society for Laboratory Animal Veterinarians of the European College of Laboratory Animal Medicine, modelled on the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine which was established in the USA as early as 1957. The veterinary schools have an obligation to ensure that undergraduate students are made aware of the importance of the use of animals in research. They must also clarify the dual role of veterinary specialists in ensuring the optimal welfare of the animals used in research while helping to provide animals for the experiments needed to advance biomedical sciences. Veterinarians working in laboratory animal medicine should, through their expertise in comparative pathobiology, be qualified to make substantial contributions to biomedical research by promoting the health and welfare of laboratory animals, and by advising scientists conducting biomedical research, for example, with respect to the choice of animal species and experimental techniques. During the past few decades there has been a change in the recruitment of students to European veterinary schools. Traditionally more men than women students were admitted (Weaver 1979, Heath 1997) but nowadays, more women than men are admitted (Heath and others 1996), and fewer students have a rural background (Lissemore and others 1989, Guernsey 1995). The authors have recently conducted a comparative analysis of the views on animals in research of nearly 2000 undergraduate students from different faculties, some whose curricula include laboratory animal medicine and some whose curricula do not (Hagelin and others 1999a). The results show that female students are less willing than male students to accept and understand the need to use animals in research and that the acceptance of animal experimentation varies between students from different faculties. The results were obtained from a wide range of students, from pre-school teachers to experienced medical students. Since veterinarians have a key role in animal experimentation, the aims of the present study were first to investigate the views of veterinary students on the use of animals in research, secondly to determine whether the course in laboratory animal medicine changed their views, and thirdly whether the views of veterinary students differed from the views of medical students. materials and methods The medical students were undergraduates at Uppsala University and the veterinary students were studying at the The Veterinary Record, June 24, 2000
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, which contains the only veterinary school in Sweden. In total, 654 students responded, 394 females and 260 males; 390 students were studying medicine and 264 were studying veterinary medicine. The veterinary students were in years 1 to 5 and the medical students were in years 1 to 6. The questions were predominantly closed, but some open-ended questions were included. The explanatory variables used were gender, year and discipline. A similar questionnaire had been used in a pilot analysis (Hagelin and others 1997). Questionnaires were distributed to the students towards the end of lectures and were filled in anonymously immediately afterwards. The population was defined as all students who were part of the group present when the questionnaires were distributed. All the students present returned questionnaires, but not all the students enrolled were present. Because not all the students answered all of the questions, the group sizes varied slightly. The numbers of Swedish students admitted to the medical and veterinary schools were obtained from Statistics of Sweden in Örebro. The likelihood ratio chi-square test was used to measure differences between groups. P values
