Although the vast majority of biomedical researchers also use other methods, animal testing is indispensable in understanding health and disease in living organisms. The complex interplay of different tissues, cell types and signalling pathways can often only be understood at the level of the whole organism. Such research towards a fundamental understanding of life therefore forms, over a period of many years, the knowledge base for identifying the causes of illnesses and for developing drugs and treatments.
Research on humans rarely produces unequivocal findings on the causes and consequences of pathological changes. Even if we keep on increasing the knowledge gained from cell cultures, significant gaps will remain. For instance, new drugs and treatments may only be tested on human subjects once the animal experiments prescribed by the law have been completed.
Alongside the primary benefits for humans, animal testing also provides important knowledge on species protection and behavioural biology which helps to optimise, for example, the breeding and husbandry of farm animals or medical treatments for pets.