Technician removes white rat from cage
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File name: rodent 45.jpg
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Technician removing adult Sprague Dawley rat, involved in studies on the parasite Trichinella, to look at health status, August 2000. Please acknowledge joint © Understanding Animal Research / Wellcome Images.
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Rats are the second most commonly used animals in medical research, accounting for around 13% of all procedures. The rat is a major animal model used in studies of organ transplantation. Many of the advances in our understanding of the immune mechanism involved in tissue rejection have come from studies in the rat: it is large enough to make surgical procedures relatively easy to perform and much is known about its immune system. Potential medicines are routinely tested on rats for efficacy and safety before they go into human clinical trials.
