Malaria is a serious cause of morbidity and mortality and yet a vaccine is not available. Studies have used animal models to understand the pathogenesis of disease and a large amount of data on parasite biology, immune regulation and disease processes have been gained from these studies. Moreover, these models have been used for pre-clinical testing of various drugs and vaccines. Here, we discuss the features of various mouse models used to study the immunobiology of malaria and test pre-clinical vaccines and conclude that animal models have a role in the study of malaria but the experimental conditions used for testing must reflect the environment of infected individuals.