An animal rights group has sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture calling on U.S. colleges to stop killing pigs for educational purposes.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine called on the Medical College of Wisconsin and eight other U.S. schools to stop using live animals in the teaching curriculum, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Monday.
The Medical College plans to open, examine and kill 36 pigs at the end of February.
"The definition of 'physiology' is 'the study of living systems,'" Allen Cowley, professor and chairman of physiology, said in an internal Medical College memo. "The Medical College's cardiovascular laboratory provides students with an exceptional learning experience."
Richard Katschke, the associate vice president of public affairs at the Medical College, said the use of live animals in medical education is endorsed by the American Physiological Society.
Copyright 2008 by United Press International
Related stories:
Got Gout? Duke Leads Study of New Treatment
(PhysOrg.com) -- A new drug designed to normalize levels of uric acid in the blood appears to be safe and tolerable and may help patients with the painful arthritic condition known as gout better cope with their disease, say researchers at Duke University Medical Center.
Teens making poor choices when it comes to riding in vehicles
Injury prevention experts have long known that teens are less likely than other motorists to wear seat belts while driving. Now, researchers from the Meharry-State Farm Alliance at Meharry Medical College have discovered lack of seat belt use by teen passengers may be an even bigger problem.
Likely cause of postpartum blues and depression identified
Unique biochemical crosstalk that enables a fetus to get nutrition and oxygen from its mother's blood just may cause common postpartum blues, researchers say.
Researchers discover how antidepressants and cocaine interact with brain cell targets
In a first, scientists from Weill Cornell Medical College and Columbia University Medical Center have described the specifics of how brain cells process antidepressant drugs, cocaine and amphetamines. These novel findings could prove useful in the development of more targeted medication therapies for a host of psychiatric diseases, most notably in the area of addiction.
New guidelines for treating rheumatoid arthritis
Proven combinations of medicines and the introduction of new anti-arthritis drugs have significantly improved the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), according to guidelines issued by the American College of Rheumatology and co-authored by physicians at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
Researchers discover mechanism that explains how cancer enzyme winds up on ends of chromosomes
Human cancer cells divide and conquer. Unless physicians can control that division with surgery, chemotherapy or radiation, the wildly dividing cells will eventually destroy a person's life.
Should doctors be increasing their carbon footprint by flying to medical conferences?
Are international medical conferences an outdated luxury the planet can't afford?
Every year thousands of doctors and scientists fly to meetings all over the world, but with climate change accelerating, can this type of travel be justified, two doctors debate the issue in this week's
BMJ.
Treatment for cigarette, alcohol and drug use in pregnancy improves outcomes for mom and baby
Pregnant women who receive treatment for substance abuse early in their pregnancy can achieve the same health outcomes as pregnant women with no substance abuse, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published online in the
Journal of Perinatology.