The city has long considered the animal tissue biomedical waste and discarded it.
But it could instead be used to create in-vitro cell culture models as an alternative to testing chemicals on live animals, greatly reducing the use of animals in laboratory research.

UNM School of Nursing professor and researcher Xiaozhong (John) Yu says if researchers can demonstrate the tissue can create a viable replacement to live animals, it could spare animals, make testing more efficient and allow the study of more chemicals.

That sounds like a win all the way around, without much hassle, as bill sponsor Councilor Tammy Fiebelkorn explains. And there’s a tremendous amount of animal reproductive tissue available every year from the city, which conducted 9,966 spay and neuter sterilization procedures on its shelter animals last year.

“It’s such an easy thing,” Fiebelkorn said.

Original Link: https://www.abqjournal.com/2554012/animal-testing.html