Rats (and mice) are often the animals of choice to try and model human conditions, treatment and body functions - even though we know that using animals to try and model people fails over 90% of the time.

Mice and rats are commonly used due to their small size, low maintenance (i.e., they are easy to house and care for), short life cycle, and ability to breed quickly (allowing large numbers to be generated for studies).

They also share many of our genes.¹ However, that's not surprising. Even cats share many of our genes.²

Rats are used is some of the most gruesome experiments that involve things like force-feeding, poisoning, oxygen deprivation and invasive surgery.

Rats in NZ have been used for:

• Drug research, including safety and efficiency testing.
• Teaching purposes in schools, mainly dissections.
• Investigating ways of killing wild rats. (i.e., research into effective poisons and traps).
• Medical research, including research into the development of severe diseases (i.e., stroke, diabetes, cancer), modelling neurological disorders (i.e., Schizophrenia, Autism), modelling mood disorders (i.e., example, anxiety, and depression) and research into tinnitus.
• Drug addiction research including research into the development and suppression of addictions and the impacts of drug use.
• Basic biological research, including research into digestion, aging, nerve damage, obesity and how the brain functions.

Places that use rats for science in NZ include crown research institutes, private companies and universities. In fact, most universities have their own breeding colonies. Otago University states on its website that they have a dedicated rat testing room in the Behavioural Phenotyping Unit.³

Rats used for science in NZ are sourced from breeding units, public or commercial sources, the wild (captured) and they are imported from overseas.

Discover real-life examples of how rats have been used in NZ below!