Table 2.

Comparison of large and small animal models of digestive disease

	Advantages	Disadvantages
Large animal (pig, dog, cat)	Select models closely approximate human disease Approximate human size (pig) Possess highly developed central and peripheral nervous system Ease of surgical manipulation	High cost More difficult to manage Special housing facilities Few transgenic models available Time consuming Pathophysiological differences, specifically with regard to reperfusion injury (cat) Morphological differences in mucosal epithelial cell populations compared with humans
Small animal (rodent)	Low cost Ease of maintenance Ease of genetic manipulation Rapid reproduction rate Number of available and well established models	Pathophysiological differences, specifically with regard to reperfusion injury Absence of clinical signs of human disease in some models Technically difficult to create surgery models due to size Mortality rate Genome is approximately 14% smaller than humans