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OPINION
The use of animals in live-tissue trauma training and military medical research
Gary Martinic, MSc(Hons), DipAppSci, DipAnTech, MAI Biol, FIAT(UK)
Uncontrolled hemorrhage is the most common preventable cause of death for soldiers wounded in combat. In live-tissue trauma training (LTTT), animals (mostly goats and pigs) are used to train physicians and paramedical personnel in how to treat severe traumatic injuries, including severe blood loss. Military personnel insist that such realistic training is necessary and has to date saved countless lives of soldiers. Animal rights groups, however, argue that the practice is inhumane and should be replaced with alternative methods. In this essay, the author explains how and why animals are used for LTTT and in military medical research (MMR), as well as why he feels that the continued use of animals for LTTT and MMR is justified. The author hopes to encourage wider discussion of this topic within the scientific, defense and animal welfare circles, leading to further refinements in the welfare and protection of animals used for these important, though often controversial, purposes.
LIVE-TISSUE TRAUMA TRAINING OF MILITARY PERSONNELThe US military currently uses approximately 9,000 goats and pigs each year in combat medic training courses to teach medics, corpsmen and other personnel how to respond to the most common causes of preventable battlefield fatalities1. In live-tissue trauma training (LTTT) sessions, military trainees practice procedures including tourniquet application, emergency management of hemorrhage, blocked airway emergency techniques (such as cricothyroidotomy) and chest tube placement in animals. The animals are deeply anesthetized and given adequate analgesia before wounds that military paramedics and doctors are likely to see in combat situations are inflicted. The wounds are then treated by the trainees. This valuable trauma care experience is not likely to be available in any other form24.
In most military LTTT courses, wounds are inflicted using surgical instruments, but a few courses offered by the US Department of Defense reportedly use various projectile methods of wound infliction, such as gunshot wounds, stab wounds, burns and amputations1,5. Upon completion of LTTT, animals are humanely euthanized without ever regaining consciousness.
LTTT has been similarly practiced in Australia, where it is called Early Management of Severe Trauma (EMST; http://www.surgeons.org/racs/education--trainees/skills-training/emst/), in order to train civilian doctors and Australian Defence Force (ADF)...