Laboratory Animals

Over the years much has been written about laboratory animals but mostly in relation to the medical field, where laboratory animal science has been initiated. Thus, animal models have been used to understand the mechanisms of human disease and to improve medical treatment. This book is different in its approach to the subject. Emphasis is now laid upon the use of laboratory animals in order to understand physiological and pathological processes with regard to animal production and its products such as procreation, breeding, health, nutrition, meat, milk, wool, leather etc. Actually, these aspects may be studied in the farm animals themselves, but the intrinsic value of the use of laboratory animals lies in the standardized properties of the suitable model. Moreover, detailed and more complete knowledge about the (patho)physiology of laboratory animals is now at hand, originating from the laboratory animal science itself or from the use of laboratory animals in the biomedical field. The first part of this work gives basic information on the commonly used laboratory animals.