The Humane Society of the United States is putting pressure on Ohio State’s microbiology department to change the way mice are used in its research.The society is planning to place an ad in the Lantern to protest a lab procedure they say causes 500 mice to suffer for up to 12 hours, said Jonathan Balcombe, assistant director for education in the animal research for the society.The society is not associated with the American Humane Association, which supports animal shelters in communities across the country. The Capital Area Humane Society in Columbus is an affiliate of the American Humane Association, and not involved in the protest.Balcombe said the campaign is being run by the Washington, D.C. office. Those involved in the lab say the animals do not suffer and steps have been taken to limit the number of mice used, such as pairing students in the labs. In 1997, 277 mice were used and in 1996, 315 were used in the labs.The course in question is Microbiology 522, Principles of Infection and Host Resistance. In one exercise, mice are injected with a potentially infectious organism and euthanized 20 minutes later. Students then practice taking internal swabs of the mice. In a second exercise, mice are injected with an organism and then given different vaccines to see which one will cure the infection. “If a vaccine doesn’t work, usually the first sign is low‹grade diarrhea,” said Dr. William Yonushonis, an OSU veterinarian who oversees and assists the labs. “As soon as we see one mouse get this symptom, all mice who were given that vaccine are euthanized.”The mice are killed with a carbon dioxide injection.All mice are observed every six to 12 hours for signs of distress, and most mice do not get symptoms for 10 to 12 hours after receiving an organism, said Yonushonis. “You have to stretch things a bit to say that the animals suffer up to 12 hours,” said Richard Tallman, chairman of OSU’s Animal Care and Use Committee. “We euthanize them at the first sign of any suffering.”Tallman said that the humane society is trying to personalize the issue by taking out an ad in the hopes that the department would change its procedures.The society argues that there are other ways to teach these principles than through hands-on methods. “We agree with the concept of learning by doing,” said Balcombe. “But we believe this lab teaches that animals are expendable and that life is cheap.”The organisms that the lab deals with cannot be properly observed or grown in a test tube, and the techniques students practice cannot be learned from watching a video, Yonushonis said. “I don’t think the humane society should determine what the academic course load is or what type of educational experiences the students will get,” said Yonushonis.The society has been pressuring the microbiology department since 1995 to change some of its lab practices. In the past, the department used rabbits to test antibodies and develop vaccines. Students would draw blood from the rabbits’ hearts, separate the blood, and try to come up with vaccines. The society sees it as a victory that the labs no longer use rabbits. Yonushonis said the rabbits are no longer used because they cost too much and because it was cheaper to buy commercial vaccines for the labs. “It’s basically a spitting contest between us and them,” Tallman said. “We’re not going to be intimidated by them.”