Assessing people's attitudes towards animal use and genetic modification using a web-based interactive survey

摘要

The objectives of this study were to compare people s attitudes towards different uses of research animals, the use of animal models with and without genetic modification, genetically modified (GM) food versus non-food products, and the role of information in decision-making. Using an interactive, online survey, we probed participant views on 2 examples of research on domestic pigs (1) to reduce agricultural pollution and (2) to improve organ transplant success in humans. Participants were asked if they would support each use of pigs using a 6-point Likert scale. We surveyed 252 animal technicians, veterinarians, animal researchers, animal advocates, university students and others. Overall, 65% of respondents indicated that they supported (i.e. strong yes and weak yes) the research on pigs to reduce phosphorous pollution but this support declined to 49% (P=0.001) when pigs were to be fed genetically modified corn, and declined further to only 20% (P=0.0) when the study involved the creation of a new GM line of pigs. A similar pattern was found for the use of pigs in biomedical research; 49% of respondents indicated that they would support the use of pigs to improve organ transplant, but this support declined to just 29% (P=0.0) when the research required the creation of a new line of GM pigs and 31 % (P=0) for the use of already genetically modified pigs. Thus, in both scenarios the level of support declined when genetic modification was proposed. Moreover, the level of support for using pigs inresearch was higher for the environmental scenario that did not involve GM (65% versus 49%, P=0.0), but slightly lower for research involving GM (29% versus 20%, P=0.045).