This Little Piggy Helped the Wounded

Spotted in MERX:

Defence Research and Development Canada – Suffield (DRDC S) has developed a fully instrumented anaesthetized swine model that they have used extensively in both research and training efforts. Initial efforts using this animal model focused exclusively on issues involving chemical warfare (CW) agents. However, due to recent and ongoing conflicts in the world, the focus in military medicine has shifted to non-traditional battlefield injuries, specifically, blast injuries such as haemorrhage, non-penetrating, shock and resuscitation and crush injuries. Plans are in place to install research into these conditions at Defence Research and Development Canada – Suffield (DRDC S), this will necessitate the expansion of the domestic swine model (DSM) out of the operating room suite and adjust it new and non-experienced field conditions. The objective of the requirement is for assistance with an anaesthesized swine model used for trauma research projects and training program. The period of contract is from date of award to October 31, 2012.

Translation: we've been doing research on the effects of bio-agents using anaesthetized pigs, and now we want to look for better ways to treat trauma using the same set-up.

I hope DND communicators are ready for the animal rights folks who will, without fail, squeal in horror (pun intended) about this valuable life-saving idea. A note to PETA: this stuff can lead to ways to save more civilian lives, too - think of that the next time a friend gets into a car accident.

Another argument to expect from PETA and their ilk: pigs aren't like people, so we could be putting folks at risk with the results of this research. Oh yeah? Then why do many people undergoing heart valve replacement surgery get, are you ready for this, valves from pigs' hearts?

A bit more here.

Update: A bit more, from the 23 Nov 09 National Post:

As research animals standing in for real soldiers over the last decade, they have helped prepare Canadian troops for the potential nightmare of chemical warfare. Now domestic pigs are making the ultimate sacrifice in efforts to improve the treatment of soldiers hurt by more conventional weapons: homemade bomb blasts and other hazards typical of the Afghan battlefield.

A new program at a government lab in Alberta will use swine to study how best to treat massive bleeding from severed limbs; mysterious but lethal crush injuries that produce no obvious cause of death; and blast waves that might be triggering brain injuries without any projectile actually hitting the soldier's head ....