
Advertisement



Cardiff University Spokesman: Lazy eye affects two to four percent of all children and leads to extremely poor vision, or even clinical blindness in one eye. To date, no treatment is available to restore normal vision in an amblyopic eye after the age of around eight years old, which is the end of the critical period of visual brain development.Our aim is to use this improved understanding of the brain to treat older children or adults whose amblyopia has been missed or not treated in time by creating similar conditions in the visual cortex of kittens to those which exist during early childhood.
Advertisement
It's impossible to use any other kind of technique for this study. Claims that this research can be replaced with CT scans or computer models simply aren't true. The university will always use alternative technology where it exists and only uses animals when absolutely necessary. The purpose of the work and its conduct was approved by both the university’s own ethical review process and the Home Office's Animals in Science Regulation Unit as part of the licensing process.

Cats had to be used for this study because, like primates and a few other mammals, they have frontally-positioned eyes and are therefore prone to develop severe amblyopia similar to humans under similar circumstances. Since amblyopia occurs as part of the development process of the visual system at an early age, the work could only be carried out in young cats or young humans.Is there not a way to deprive their sight without sewing their eyes shut?
No. The research was done under anesthetic without causing undue distress or discomfort, to the same standard as it would be done by vets, who frequently carry out the same procedure as therapy for eye conditions in cats and dogs.

As required by the terms of the Home Office licence, the cats were humanely killed at the end of the experiment.
Advertisement
