Table 1.

Advantages and disadvantages of rodent models in comparison to large experimental animals.

Advantages

• Moderate costs; easily maintained and genetically manipulated

• Short reproduction times; several generations can be studied in relatively brief time periods

• Numerous genetically engineered strains and wide range of immunological reagents for analyses available (especially for mice)

• Extensive literature on their immune and physiological systems

• Established/validated models for a variety of human diseases

Disadvantages

• Microbiome differs more than that of large animals (e.g. nonhuman primates) as compared to the human microbiome

• Anatomy and physiology and disease features not as close to humans as big animals

• More inbred than large animals; decreased variability in results but also decreased translatability of findings