283 Laboratory Animals and Experimental Research in a Sustainable Scientific Development Metehan UZUN University of Onsekiz Mart, School of Health Science, ÇANAKKALE, TURKEY, e-mail: metehanuzun@hotmail.com Birkan TOPÇU University of Kafkas, Atatürk Vocational School of Health Services, Kars, TURKEY e-mail: birkantopcu_23@hotmail.com Abstract: Laboratory animals are used and the experimental research is run in various scientific fields such as human and animal health, disease control, sustainable environmental health, health industry and product innovation, and biosafety planning. The experimental research includes those studies that are not yet proven to be completely safe or those not possible to be run on humans. Rats, mice and rabbits are commonly used in these studies. Based on the kind of the study, cats, dogs, guinea pigs, hamsters, sheep, cattle, chicken, sparrows, goats, horses, nonhuman primates, invertebrates, fish and fly species can be used. Though labaratory animals provide significant contributions to the humans and development in science, they require protection by humans and require to be protected from unfair use. Ethical boards and rules are formed to accomplish those goals prohibited the use of the laboratory animals in experimental research under unethical conditions and ruled that any research shall use methods that require the least amount of pain and suffering. The boards ruled not only on research methods but also on feeding and management practices to uphold the main principles of animal welfare. It is obvious that these rulings are the already late responsibility of human kind. Introduction Millions of animals have been used in the identification and treatment of disease, biomedicine and health industry and product innovation. Laboratory animals used as models in biomedicine research should have biological, anatomical and physiological similarities to humans. Various laboratory animals have been used in biomedical research and toxicity tests aimed that developing new methods for human diseases. Laboratory animal usage has been increasing in worldwide. When an experimental model is chosen, the genetic definition has to be taken into account. Mice and rats are the best-studied mammalian species in terms of their biology, physiology and genetics after humans. Taylor et al (2008) estimated that 58.2 million animals in 179 countries were used in experiments or for educational purposes in 2005. In England, 3.7 million scientific experimental procedures were started in 2008. Mice, rats and all other rodents together accounted for the seventy-seven percent (77%) of the total (Figure 1). The number of animals used in experimental studies has been increasing exponentially and the species used in these experiments are changing. There were increases in usage of some species (Figure 2). On the other hand, a decrease in some species was recorded in 2008 (Figure 3). For example, rat (8%), domestic fowl (4%), guinea pig (8%), rabbit (13%) and beagle (17%) usage decreased (Figure 3; Home Office, 2008).