Students at Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine will no longer have to practice their skills on live pigs, according to The Baltimore Sun.
The medical school previously offered third and fourth year students an optional surgical training course that used anesthetized pigs, but it has halted the class.
The move was partially prompted by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, an advocacy group. By picketing, signing petitions and backing legislation, the committee has sought to force Johns Hopkins to end the practice multiple times over the years.
Now that Johns Hopkins has dropped the course, Chattanooga-based University of Tennessee College of Medicine is the only medical school in the nation using live animals to train students. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has now set its sights on eliminating the practice there.
Ten years ago, it launched the effort to halt the practice. Of the 197 medical schools polled at that time, 30 were still using live animals for training purposes, according to John Pippin, MD, director of academic affairs for the committee.