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Nonhuman animal (“animal”) experimentation is typically defended by arguments that it is reliable, that animals provide sufficiently good models of human biology and diseases to yield relevant information, and that, consequently, its use provides major human health benefits. I demonstrate that a growing body of scientific literature critically assessing the validity of animal experimentation generally (and animal modeling specifically) raises important concerns about its reliability and predictive value for human outcomes and for understanding human physiology. The unreliability of animal experimentation across a wide range of areas undermines scientific arguments in favor of the practice. Additionally, I show how animal experimentation often significantly harms humans through misleading safety studies, potential abandonment of effective therapeutics, and direction of resources away from more effective testing methods. The resulting evidence suggests that the collective harms and costs to humans from animal experimentation outweigh potential benefits and that resources would be better invested in developing human-based testing methods.

Because of the advent of a new influenza A H1N1 strain, many countries have begun mass immunisation programmes. Awareness of the background rates of possible adverse events will be a crucial part of assessment of possible vaccine safety concerns and will help to separate legitimate safety concerns from events that are temporally associated with but not caused by vaccination. We identified background rates of selected medical events for several countries. Rates of disease events varied by age, sex, method of ascertainment, and geography. Highly visible health conditions, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome, spontaneous abortion, or even death, will occur in coincident temporal association with novel influenza vaccination. On the basis of the reviewed data, if a cohort of 10 million individuals was vaccinated in the UK, 21·5 cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome and 5·75 cases of sudden death would be expected to occur within 6 weeks of vaccination as coincident background cases. In female vaccinees in the USA, 86·3 cases of optic neuritis per 10 million population would be expected within 6 weeks of vaccination. 397 per 1 million vaccinated pregnant women would be predicted to have a spontaneous abortion within 1 day of vaccination.

Many critical public health issues require non-traditional approaches. Although many novel strategies are used, one approach not widely applied involves improving the treatment of animals. Emerging infectious diseases are pressing public health challenges that could benefit from improving the treatment of animals. Other human health issues, that overlap with animal treatment issues, and that warrant further exploration, are medical research and domestic violence. The diverse nature of these health issues and their connection with animal treatment suggest that there may be other similar intersections. Public health would benefit by including the treatment of animals as a topic of study and policy development.

Macroinvertebrate community in the intertidal setup plays an important role in coastal ecosystem functions and biogeochemical cycle. However, different land use pattern may influence on their community structure, diversity, and composition in the coastal ecosystems. Using Van-Veen grab sampler, 60 sediment samples were seasonally collected from mangroves-dominated, aquaculture-dominated, and anthropogenically affected area in the lower intertidal zone of the Kohelia channel of Bangladesh, the Northern Bay of Bengal. We have tasted the variation in sediment properties across three land-use types in this intertidal habitat. To understand the patterns of benthic macroinvertebrate distribution, a neutral community model was applied. Our results showed that community composition and biodiversity of the benthic macroinvertebrate communities varied significantly between mangrove-dominated area with anthropogenically affected areas among the four seasons. The neutral community model revealed that community assembly of benthic macroinvertebrates in the lower intertidal habitats is structured by stochastic processes while sediment properties have significant influence on species distribution and interactions. Results suggested that land-use changes altered sediment properties and could change the diversity and distribution of the macroinvertebrate communities in the lower intertidal habitats.

•Global collaboration is feasible and enables comparison of vaccine formulations.•Exposure to pandemic H1N1 vaccines was associated with a slight increased risk of GBS.•Adjuvanted vaccines were not associated with higher GBS risk as compared to non-adjuvanted vaccines.•Results from pooled (mega-analytic) and meta-analytic approaches were consistent.•Low relative incidence of GBS supports recommendations for use of influenza vaccines. The global spread of the 2009 novel pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus led to the accelerated production and distribution of monovalent 2009 Influenza A (H1N1) vaccines (pH1N1). This pandemic provided the opportunity to evaluate the risk of Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS), which has been an influenza vaccine safety concern since the swine flu pandemic of 1976, using a common protocol among high and middle-income countries. The primary objective of this project was to demonstrate the feasibility and utility of global collaboration in the assessment of vaccine safety, including countries both with and without an established infrastructure for vaccine active safety surveillance. A second objective, included a priori, was to assess the risk of GBS following pH1N1 vaccination. The primary analysis used the self-controlled case series (SCCS) design to estimate the relative incidence (RI) of GBS in the 42 days following vaccination with pH1N1 vaccine in a pooled analysis across databases and in analysis using a meta-analytic approach. We found a relative incidence of GBS of 2.42 (95% CI 1.58–3.72) in the 42 days following exposure to pH1N1 vaccine in analysis of pooled data and 2.09 (95% CI 1.28–3.42) using the meta-analytic approach. This study demonstrates that international collaboration to evaluate serious outcomes using a common protocol is feasible. The significance and consistency of our findings support a conclusion of an association between 2009 H1N1 vaccination and GBS. Given the rarity of the event the relative incidence found does not provide evidence in contradiction to international recommendations for the continued use of influenza vaccines.

Zooplankton plays an important role in aquatic food webs by fluxing of energy from primary producer to subsequent trophic levels in the food chain. The annual pattern of zooplankton communities and potential environmental drivers were studied in the Kohelia channel, Bangladesh from summer 2014 to spring 2015. Samples were collected using net at a depth of 1 m. A total of 32 species belonged to 18 orders, 27 families and 15 taxonomic groups were identified. Of these species, 22 distributed in all four seasons of which 8 were dominant and highly contributing to the total communities. Species number peaked in summer next to winter and fall in spring while maximum abundance was in summer and minimum in spring. Multivariate analyses showed that there was a clear annual pattern in the zooplankton communities. Species diversity and evenness peaked in spring but fall in autumn while the high value of species richness was found in winter. Biological-environmental best matching (BIO-ENV) analyses conformed that community pattern of zooplankton was mainly driven by transparency salinity, and temperature individually or combined with water nutrients. These results demonstrate that annual pattern of the zooplankton community shaped by channel environmental factors in subtropical channel ecosystems, thus might be used for community-based subtropical coastal water bioassessment.

Zooplankton plays an important role in aquatic food webs by fluxing of energy from primary producer tosubsequent trophic levels in the food chain. The annual pattern of zooplankton communities and potentialenvironmental drivers were studied in the Kohelia channel, Bangladesh from summer 2014 to spring 2015.Samples were collected using net at a depth of 1 m. A total of 32 species belonged to 18 orders, 27 families and 15taxonomic groups were identified. Of these species, 22 distributed in all four seasons of which 8 were dominantand highly contributing to the total communities. Species number peaked in summer next to winter and fall inspring while maximum abundance was in summer and minimum in spring. Multivariate analyses showed thatthere was a clear annual pattern in the zooplankton communities. Species diversity and evenness peaked inspring but fall in autumn while the high value of species richness was found in winter. Biological-environmentalbest matching (BIO-ENV) analyses conformed that community pattern of zooplankton was mainly driven bytransparency salinity, and temperature individually or combined with water nutrients. These results demonstratethat annual pattern of the zooplankton community shaped by channel environmental factors in subtropicalchannel ecosystems, thus might be used for community-based subtropical coastal water bioassessment.

If we were to take a good look at the top news stories worldwide over the past ten years, we would notice an interesting trend: more and more of these stories concern animal welfare. What is perhaps even more interesting is that a significant number of these stories reveal just how intricately connected the welfare of nonhuman animals is to public health. Consider the following examples. In 2003, avian influenza (H5N1) spread swiftly across poultry farms in Asia and jumped the species barrier to infect humans, causing alarm to be raised about the potential for the next pandemic to originate

Do animals suffer? Do animals know who they are? Do animals enjoy a good belly rub? Do animals think about what they will do next? Intuitively, you would likely answer, “Yes, of course animals feel and think.” Spend one day with a dog or watch a squirrel interact with another squirrel, and you would be hard-pressed to deny them these basic capacities. But deny them we have. Our use of nonhuman animals for experimentation and for other purposes that compromise their welfare is in need of justification. Often enough, that justification has come from scientists who have argued that nonhuman