conclusion of domestic animals
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The value of using domestic and wild animals to identify and monitor a wide variety of environmental hazards to human health and ecosystems has been discussed throughout this report. This report has described epidemiologic and experimental approaches to the use of animals as environmental sentinels to detect hazards before they would be discovered with more traditional methods—human epidemiologic studies or laboratory-animal experiments. The committee noted that many current animal-monitoring systems couldwith relatively minor modifications, be made suitable for use during the process of risk assessment of many environmental contaminants. These would complement traditional rodent models by adding species diversity and a method to evaluate natural and often complex exposures.
Despite the wealth of studies of and scientists' and regulators' interest in the use of animals as sentinels for environmental health hazards, the committee notes that this approach has not gained widespread acceptance. One reason might be the institutional inertia that accompanies integration of new scientific methods into the risk-assessment process and use of the results for risk management. Many government agencies do not recognize the importance of animals sentinels or agree on how to compare the findings obtained with them and the findings obtained with more traditional methods. In addition, research on and development of animals sentinels have generally not had high priority in funding agencies, although they probably will with increasing attention to animal welfare and the search for humane alternatives to laboratory-animal experimentation. The committee feels that potential users of animal-sentinel data generally are not aware of possible applications of these alternative methods and that traditional rodent models for toxicity testing are perceived as superior to such alternative methods.
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Explanation:
The value of using domestic and wild animals to identify and monitor a wide variety of environmental hazards to human health and ecosystems has been discussed throughout this report. This report has described epidemiologic and experimental approaches to the use of animals as environmental sentinels to detect hazards before they would be discovered with more traditional methods—human epidemiologic studies or laboratory-animal experiments. The committee noted that many current animal-monitoring systems could, with relatively minor modifications, be made suitable for use during the process of risk assessment of many environmental contaminants. These would complement traditional rodent models by adding species diversity and a method to evaluate natural and often complex exposures.
Despite the wealth of studies of and scientists' and regulators' interest in the use of animals as sentinels for environmental health hazards, the committee notes that this approach has not gained widespread acceptance. One reason might be the institutional inertia that accompanies integration of new scientific methods into the risk-assessment process and use of the results for risk management. Many government agencies do not recognize the importance of animals sentinels or agree on how to compare the findings obtained with them and the findings obtained with more traditional methods. In addition, research on and development of animals sentinels have generally not had high priority in funding agencies, although they probably will with increasing attention to animal welfare and the search for humane alternatives to laboratory-animal experimentation. The committee feels that potential users of animal-sentinel data generally are not aware of possible applications of these alternative methods and that traditional rodent models for toxicity testing are perceived as superior to such alternative methods.
The committee concludes that various factors have contributed to the underuse and lack of synthesis of data from animal sentinel systems:
The data collected by most animals sentinel systems have not been standardized, and data-collection programs themselves have been poorly coordinated and lack specific and realistic objectives.
Basic information on the biology, behavior, and similar characteristics of many potentially useful species of sentinel animals is insufficient.
The predictive value of animal sentinel data for human health usually has not been evaluated sufficiently.
The predictive value for human health of any data obtained from animals has inherent uncertainties, because it is difficult to extrapolate them to humans.
The concept and methods of risk assessment have generally not received sufficient attention in training programs in veterinary epidemiology, toxicology, pathology, and environmental health.
Perhaps most important, the committee concludes that the communication vital to development, refinement, and implementation of animal sentinel programs is lacking. Input from relevant government agencies, industry, and academic institution will be required, if animals sentinel programs are to be appropriately developed and operated.
Animal sentinel systems are particularly well suited for monitoring the complex array of environmental insults to human health and for assessing the health of delicately balanced ecosystems. Animal sentinels have three primary strengths:
They share environments with humans, often consuming the same foods and water from the sources, breathing the same air, and experiencing similar stresses imposed by technologic advances and human conflicts.
Animals and humans respond to many toxic agents in analogous ways, often developing similar environmentally induced diseases by the same pathogenetic mechanisms.
Animals often develop environmentally induced pathologic conditions more rapidly than humans, because they have shorter lifespans; that results in decreased latency periods for disease development or increased susceptibility to toxic chemicals.
Keeping in mind those characteristics and potential advantages of animals as sentinels of environmental health hazards, the committee offers the following recommendations for the use of animals sentinels in risk assessment:
Animal diseases that can serve as sentinel events to identify environmental health hazards for humans or to indicate insults to an ecosystem should be legally reportable to appropriate state or federal health agencies.
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