The guinea pig is the domestic rodent species Cavia porcellus. NCBI Taxonomy places it in the genus Cavia and family Caviidae within Rodentia. Its common name does not place it among pigs. A species name identifies the organism used in a study; it does not specify the strain, tissue preparation or physiological measurement.[ref]
Cavia porcellus in NCBI Taxonomy. TaxID10141, scientific/common names and lineage
A motivating experimental example comes from a1968 complement C5 study. Investigators separated an active fragment from guinea-pig material and tested biological responses, including activity in guinea-pig ileum and chemotaxis of rabbit leukocytes. Keeping the source species, assay species and measured response explicit prevents treating these as one interchangeable readout.[ref]
Chemotactic and anaphylatoxic fragment cleaved from the fifth component of guinea pig complement by H. S. Shin and others. Abstract; separated C5 fragment and tissue/cell assays
For an invented tissue-response comparison, a preparation contracts by2 millimetres before treatment and5 millimetres afterward. The difference is3 millimetres, and the second displacement is2.5times the first. Those calculations describe that preparation and instrument setting. They do not establish an equivalent whole-animal response, a human dose or the molecular identity of every active component. The organism, preparation and endpoint are all parts of the experiment.
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