Killed by London college for research ... The emu, pictured at Werribee Zoo, is on the Australian coat of arms. Source: News Limited
A BRITISH medical institution has defended its use of medical testing on Australia's national emblem, the emu, saying studies could provide answers to human illnesses including musculoskeletal and hip-joint problems.
Forty-four UK universities and medical research centres yesterday released their annual summary of animal research experiments, which in the past 12 months involved the deaths of more than 1.3 million animals.
But this year among the usual lists of mice, rats, fish, chickens, frogs and birds were experiments on 124 monkeys and six emu.
The inclusion of the Australian national coat or arms icon has particularly sparked fury from one animal group, which claimed there could be no benefit from testing on the flightless bird.
The Royal Veterinary College in London admitted killing all six emus in the past year but said it was important as the ideal human-like model to study orthopedic issues.
A spokeswoman for the prestigious college told the Herald Sun the bird grows to 40kg in 18 months without any musculoskeletal issues and it was important to understand why.
"Emus are of interest scientifically because they are bipedal and large like humans and previous studies have suggested they might be an ideal model species for looking at orthopedic issues such as hip joint problems for human applications," she said.
She said past studies had looked at upper legs but to complete the picture the college needed to understand lower leg growth and how the "stresses and strains" change.
"This work has potential applications to diverse areas including growth and leg health in humans as well as direct applications to sporadic leg problems in emus and other birds," she said, adding it could also help answer why some birds developed bone deformities.
The emus were sourced from a UK farm that sells feathers, oil and leather.
Veterinary Surgeon and scientific consultant for the Humane Research Australia and UK Animal Aid Dr Andre Menache said claims tests could benefit humans was wrong.
"Saying because the emu is bipedal like humans is like saying dogs have two eyes like humans so lets test them for the benefit of humans," he said.
"Its great to satisfy someone's academic curiosity but in terms of helping human disease, the science shows the chance of that happening is close to zero."
Dr Menache said to suggest tests on one species could help another was contrary to natural evolutionary biology laws.
He said DNA development had made it easier to find human cures from human tissue but even using biological human waste from hospital biopsies required more paperwork than 100 mice so researchers did what's easy.
According to figures released yesterday, a total of 1,329,013 animals were killed between July this year and last with mice accounting for 73 per cent. The University of Edinburgh had the highest toll followed by Cambridge and Oxford universities.
Kings College London, Imperial College London and Stirling University in Scotland also performed experiments on more than 100,000 animals each.
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