Why are animals used in biomedical research?

• A. They are cheaper than alternatives
• B. They are the best surrogates due to their similarities to humans
• C. They are easier to train
• D. They are the only model available

Answer: (B)

Animals are used because they provide a living, whole-body model that shares many biological processes with humans, making them effective surrogates to study how diseases develop and how treatments behave in an intact organism. This allows researchers to observe complex interactions among organs, metabolism, the immune system, and potential side effects in ways that cell cultures or computer models cannot fully replicate.

While factors like cost, how easy an organism is to train, or the existence of alternative models can influence study design, these considerations don’t provide the same translational relevance to human health. The key reason they’re chosen is the biological similarity that makes findings more predictive of human responses across disease and treatment contexts.