Animal Testing?

Cocolola

Hi all.

This is probably a stupid question with an obvious answer but could anyone tell me if live animals are tested on or used in experiments for the Zoology or Genetics courses?

http://www.ucc.ie/en/ProspectiveStudents/Admissions/programmes/sefs/bsc-zoology/

http://www.ucc.ie/en/ProspectiveStudents/Admissions/programmes/sefs/bsc-genetics/

Thanks

taram

Bear in mind I studied plant science in ZEPS, but took a hell of a lot of crossover modules Took some genetics (plant sci modules) but they were plant experimental.

On the 2nd year ecology field trip we do trap and examine live animals, but mostly insects, with the exception of field flushing fish (using a stunner and a pump to check their stomach contents), however we used about 4 fish between 40 people, fish were realised back into the river. The other exception being sedated badgers that were weighed and checked for injuries/notable marks. This was done under supervision of a badger specalist and his phd student and we basically watched.

Other experiements were on live Daphnia (water fleas), woodlice and one dissection of dead trout.

In your 4th year project most zoologists do undertake some form of experimentation on live animals (though usually invertebrates or marine fish/shellfish, or behavoural studies on vertebrates) but this is all supervised, and any harm to the animals is scientifically justified, ie. you need to check the heart of an oyster so you have to dissect 1 in 100 to check rates of uptake of chemical X etc.

Feel free to ask more questions