"Guniea Pigs"

[msrcao]

Prompted by the closure of the guinea pig farm in the news at the moment..... why are people who try something out for the first time called a 'guinea pig'? How widely used are guinea pigs for testing? If you asked me to name an animal used for animal testing I would have said rats or mice - never guinea pig, so how did this term come about?

[Quizmonster]

Click here for an answer.

[Peter Pedant]

interesting link

i thought Pasteur used rabbits - that his first rabies vaccine was phenolised rabbit spinal cord.

Koch/s BCG vaccine originnated from three rabbits called Brunnhilde, Leon and Lansing, should any ABer wonder.

[d0gsb0dy]

The only thing that guinea-pigs have in common with us humans is that, unlike rats and most other mammals, they cannot produce their own vitamin C. Pretty well a waste of time as a means of testing medicines on, I should have thought. Can't see that it would prove they were safe for us.