AIDS study targeting cats infuriates animal activists

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A researcher's plan to infect 120 cats with the feline version of HIV and then inject them with methamphetamine to study the effects has outraged animal rights activists and is raising questions about the need for the federally funded study.

Ohio State University professor Michael Podell received a $355,000 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health, for the first year of what he expects to be a five-year study costing $1.68 million.

''We want to understand more about HIV and drug abuse in people,'' said Podell, associate professor of veterinary clinical sciences. ''One of the ways to do that is to develop an animal model that has similar characteristics.''

Podell also is interested in the drug's effect on the nervous system. Methamphetamine speeds up neurological degeneration - something Podell says is becoming more of a problem as people with AIDS are living longer because of improved drug treatments.

Feline immunodeficiency virus and human immunodeficiency virus have similar effects on the immune and neurological systems of their respective hosts, he said. Cats also respond to methamphetamine similar to the way people do. When injected, methamphetamine is a stimulant that can cause a feeling of euphoria and hyperactivity. It's also known to cause such long-term effects as paranoia, hallucinations and strokes.

Peter Wood, a spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, attacked the study as ''cruel, wasteful and bizarre.'' He argued that HIV and FIV aren't similar enough for the research to transfer to humans and that the social pressures that would lead a person to take methamphetamine can't be replicated with cats.

''It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know meth use will have an adverse effect on your body so the disease will be promoted more vigorously,'' Wood said. ''Our limited resources would be better spent on teaching people how to avoid contracting HIV or on drug prevention.''

Julio Abreu, spokesman for AIDS Action, a Washington-based AIDS activist organization, said his group supports studies that aim to find a cure or vaccine, but to simply establish a control study in which the results are already known, whether it involves animals or humans, is a poor use of resources.

''In an era where there's still no cure and no vaccine, I'd hate for any precious resources to be misguided,'' Abreu said.

Podell defended the study and said the National Institutes of Health has a set amount of money earmarked for AIDS research.

''The NIH has predetermined how to proportion their funds into basic science, clinical science and prevention programs,'' he said. ''The NIH has a very large budget for drug abuse prevention. There's already a tremendous amount of funding for that and it's not a situation where they'd take these funds and use them for a prevention program.''

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On the Net:

AIDS Action: http://www.aidsaction.org

National Institutes of Health: http://www.nih.gov

Ohio State University: http://www.osu.edu

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals: http://www.peta.org