From: young@clpd.kodak.com (Rich Young)
Subject: Re: Scabies experiments at Wright State University
Originator: young@sasquatch
Reply-To: young@clpd.kodak.com
Organization: Clinical Diagnostics Division, Eastman Kodak Company
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 93 16:26:18 GMT

In article <1993Jan25.031214.3370@zooid.guild.org> rwaigh@zooid.UUCP (Rosemary Waigh) writes:
>
>From a new PETA pamphlet, entitled "Where, Oh Where Did This Little Dog Come
>From?"
>
>"Fourteen states prohibit seizing animals from pounds for experiments.  Ohio
>still permits 'pound seizue,' although public opinion is against it.

	How many would have been euthanized at the pounds due to overcrowding
	had they not been used for lab experiments?

>"*Many dogs from the Greene County Pound end up at Wright State University
>(WSU) laboratories, in scabies experiments conducted by Larry G. Arlian.* 
>Arlian infects dogs with scabies mites scraped from the ears of severely
>infested rabbits.  Scabies spreads over their entire bodies, causing intense,
>prolonged itching, open wounds and crusting of the skin; death follows if the
>dogs are not treated - often the case in Arlian's lab.

[...remainder of story deleted for brevity...]

>"Here is what experts say:
>
>"'This work is duplicative and capable of inflicting constant, unrelieved
>suffereing on the animals involved.'
>Veterinarian Eric K. Dunayer

	It may, indeed, inflict suffering on the animals, but the fact
	that it's "duplicative" means that some else thought it a useful
	investigative direction.

>"'Parasites cause species-specific reactions in their hosts, so it is
>impossible to extrapolate rabbit or dog data to the human scabies mite.'
>Veterinarian Wendy Thacher

	This is simply misleading.  While it is true that the exact parasite
	may be species-specific, and even the reaction to the parasite,
	the mechanism by which the parasite causes the reaction may well
	be common to all similar parasites, so study of the mechanism of
	action in dogs, for example, might well be applicable to humans.

>"'Scabies in humans is ... disagreable but ... does not result in death. 
>Research in vaccines has been limited to death-precipitating organisms.'
>Aurora F. Alberti, M.D.

	I'm not at all sure that this is true, although I can't think of a
	vaccine used for a disease that NEVER causes a death.  On the other
	hand, there are vaccines on the market for diseases for which the
	death rate is very, very low.  Dr. Alberti's implication is that
	vaccines are only created for diseases as serious as polio, however,
	an implication which is patently false.

>"'The goal to develop a vaccine against scabies mites getting into the skin in
>humans is no different from trying to develop a vaccine to keep flies from
>landing on human skin.'
>William M. George, M.D."

	Note the difference between these two phrases (emphasis added):

		"...mites getting INTO the skin..."

		"...flies...landing ON human skin..."

	Now, there's a real difference between organisms which break the
	protective epidermal layer and organisms which simply rest upon
	it for a while, isn't there?  If the mites penetrate the skin
	far enough to provoke an immune response, then there may be merit
	in the search for a vaccine which would cause immediate rejection
	of scabies mites.  A fly landing on your skin may be a nuisance
	and even esthetically horrifying, but its presence on your skin
	is not a serious threat to your health and well-being.  A scabies
	infestation, on the other hand, requires application of 5% permethrin
	TO THE ENTIRE BODY to kill the mites, which is not a particularly
	simple or pleasant process.  How would you like to be immersed in
	pesticide?  A vaccine might be useful and Dr. George's remarks would 
	seem to be misleading, if not hasty.


-Rich Young (These are not Kodak's opinions.)