Hamsters throughout the developed world are used for research purposes. Annually only in America, 1,000,000 hamsters are used in laboratories to carry out research. The reasons for them being used the most are:
• Availability and ease of reproduction
• Relative freedom from spontaneous diseases along with weakness to introduce pathogenic agents such as viruses, bacteria, and other microorganisms that causes diseases
• Anatomical and physiological features with unique potential for study
• Rapid development and short life cycle
Chinese Hamsters are known laboratory animals and they are preferred because of their temperament and calm nature. It has been used to carry out research on infectious diseases, radiobiological, endocrine, carcinogenic, and mutagenic research.
Syrian Hamster is then the second-best choice for carrying out research because of their susceptibility to N-diethyl nitrosamine with the resultant development of respiratory tumors. They are considered highly suitable for research that are for highly concentrated and prolonged smoke inhalation studies.
Armenian Hamster is used for research to study meiosis and their susceptibility to carcinogenic and mutagenic agents. The former is used for the propagation of cancer and the latter deals with changing the genetic material that is DNA and thus results in increasing the process of mutation.