Dibrugarh, May 25: Biomedical researchers in the Northeast have for long been forced to rely on animals brought in from outside for conducting their experiments. But this is all set to end, with the Lahowal-based Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC) setting up a ?reproduction centre? for experimental animals.
Established in 1982, the centre ? located in the Upper Assam district of Dibrugarh ? is the lone biomedical research laboratory in the entire region under the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Lahowal is 13 km from Dibrugarh.
The director of the research centre, Jagadish Mahanta, said the reproduction centre would become operational by year-end.
?Animals reared here would be better acclimatised to the local conditions of the region, thereby making them more suitable for experiments of various kinds. This centre would meet the requirements of a large number of scientists working in this field in the Northeast,? Mahanta said.
Till now, animals used for experiments in Assam had to be brought in from the National Centre for Laboratory Animal Sciences in Hyderabad.
This is the first organisation of its kind in the country, which aims at paying adequate attention to the quality of laboratory animals produced and used.
Mahanta explained that animals brought from outside have a high mortality rate. He was confident that this centre would solve this problem.
The costs involved in transporting animals from outside also form a burden on the centre. Besides, the process takes a long time.
Initially, the centre would start off with a stock of mice, rats and guinea pigs. Mahanta said another variety, which needs be reared and bred, is the primate stock. This includes monkeys, chimpanzees and gibbons. Cat species would also be reared.
Experts explained that use of good quality animals is essential for obtaining reliable and reproducible experimental results in biomedical research and for production and testing of drugs and vaccines.
Mahanta said the region has ample scope for biomedical research and the proposed centre would be beneficial for scientists.
?All necessary proposals and estimates have been sent to the medical council for sanction,? he added.