Panaji: The People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) International Science Consortium is funding ground breaking research that will spare thousands of Indian horses currently being forced to produce antitoxins for diphtheria. The consortium is providing 134,000 Euros to the Institute of Biochemistry, Biotechnology, and Bioinformatics at the Technische Universität Braunschweig in Germany. Its lead researcher, Professor Michael Hust, has research expertise in the development of human antitoxins.
This research will lead to the development of recombinant human antibodies that can block the illness-causing diphtheria toxin. These antibodies will be possible to produce in laboratories, eliminating horses' suffering, says Professor Stefan Dübel, head of the Biotechnology Department. He has expressed happiness at the international recognition of the University's long standing commitment to developing an antibody generation method which would make animal experiments obsolete.
According to Dr. Rohit Bhatia, science policy adviser for PETA India, the Indian government, too, must act by focusing on the adoption and development of modern non-animal methods of producing antitoxins and antivenins. Each year, thousands of horses are used as living factories to produce antitoxins. These antitoxins are isolated from horses' blood after the horses are repeatedly injected with toxins including the diphtheria toxin. Many of the horses are kept on farms in India, from where the antitoxins are exported and used worldwide. A recent inspection by veterinary and PETA India experts uncovered rampant negligence and inadequate veterinary care at the farms, said a PETA India press release here on Wednesday. Horses and other equines used in India showed signs of lameness, anaemia, diseased hooves, eye abnormalities, and malnutrition.
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The development of human antitoxins will also help to avoid the serum sickness that horse-derived antitoxins can cause in humans, and will mitigate the global shortage of diphtheria antitoxins.
PETA India has urged the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change to ensure that suffering horses receive the veterinary and rehabilitative care they need, but no action has been taken so far to provide them relief. PETA India has also urged the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to commit to supporting the development of additional non-animal antitoxins and antivenins and to stop relying on the abuse and neglect of thousands of horses each year.