Med school criticized for use of pigs

ST. LOUIS -- A national physicians group has challenged Saint Louis University's use of pigs in a medical school course, saying when alternatives are available, schools are bound by federal law to stop using animals.

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a not-for-profit group founded in 1985, has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate the matter and force the school to stop using animals in a course on the cardiovascular system, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

Medical students can learn just as effectively with human simulators, lectures, videos and by shadowing surgeons, said the group, which encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research. According to its Web site, the group also promotes preventive medicine and conducts clinical research.

"We are now so far down that road to superior alternatives that it's extremely puzzling why any medical school would continue using animals," said Dr. John J. Pippin, the senior medical and research adviser for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

The university's medical school does use mannequin-like human simulators to teach how a drug interacts with certain natural chemicals in the body to affect blood pressure and blood flow to organs.

The simulators give readouts of heart rate and blood pressure, but they have no blood, so students can't see how vessels constrict or dilate.

Instructor Mark Knuepfer said the optional lab he teaches, using a pig demonstration, cements the concept in the future doctors' minds where a lecture or simulator cannot.

"The students walk away from there never, ever forgetting what this (drug) can do if they give it to a patient," Knuepfer said.

The physicians committee said it often finds out about the use of animals from concerned medical students, but it also surveys deans to determine which schools use animals in the classroom.

Washington University in St. Louis did not receive a similar letter of complaint even though it demonstrates physiology principles in a course that uses two pigs each year. Washington University stopped using dogs in a student laboratory. The group said it was unaware the institution used pigs.

Many schools teach students using animals in ways that don't fit the criteria in the physicians group's questions, said Robert G. Carroll, chairman of the American Physiological Society's education committee.

Carroll estimates that at least half of medical schools incorporate animals into the learning experience.

The Agriculture Department regularly inspects schools that use animals to see that they meet the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act.

"I think some schools tell PCRM whatever they think will shut them up," said Dr. Richard Doyle, the head of the department of comparative medicine at Saint Louis University. "We don't think that educational objectives are best served by surveying other schools to see what they're doing."

The school's animal care committee recently reviewed the physicians group's complaints and chose not to respond, Doyle said.

The university viewed the letter as a heavy-handed threat that was largely inaccurate. Knuepfer said "freedom of curriculum" is at stake.

Pippin says human simulators offer a better learning experience for students and medical schools have to get over the idea "that you have to put your hands inside a living body that's not a human body."

Saint Louis University uses two or three pigs a year -- down from a dozen pigs a year and numerous dog laboratories, Knuepfer said. Still, a few students balk at the use of even a small number of animals.

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On the Net:

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine: http://www.pcrm.org

Saint Louis University School of Medicine: http://www.slu.edu/colleges/med

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com