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Accepting Higher Morbidity In Exchange For Sacrificing Fewer Animals In Studies Developing Novel Infection-Control Strategies., Henk J. Busscher, Willem Woudstra, Theo G. Van Kooten, Paul Jutte, Linqi Shi, Jianfeng Liu, Wouter L.J. Hinrichs, Hendrik W. Frijlink, Rui Shi, Jian Liu, Javad Parvizi, Stephen Kates, Vincent M. Rotello, Thomas P. Schaer, Dustin Williams, David W. Grainger, Henny C. Van Der Mei

Rothman Institute Faculty Papers

Preventing bacterial infections from becoming the leading cause of death by the year 2050 requires the development of novel, infection-control strategies, building heavily on biomaterials science, including nanotechnology. Pre-clinical (animal) studies are indispensable for this development. Often, animal infection outcomes bear little relation to human clinical outcome. Here, we review conclusions from pathogen-inoculum dose-finding pilot studies for evaluation of novel infection-control strategies in murine models. Pathogen-inoculum doses are generally preferred that produce the largest differences in quantitative infection outcome parameters between a control and an experimental group, without death or termination of animals due to having reached an inhumane end-point …