| Animal Welfare |
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Researchers increasingly use alternative methods as these become available.Major efforts are devoted by industry, the scientific community, and regulators to the development and application of techniques in line with the reduction, replacement and refinement (3Rs) principle, i.e. alternatives. The welfare of laboratory animals is a central concern for both, ethical and scientific reasons. When the use of animals cannot be avoided or replaced by non-animal methods, researchers will aim at reducing the numbers of animals and at refinement of the studies to minimise impact on the animal. These are is known as the "3Rs principles" – Replacement, Reduction and Refinement. Innovative approaches with cells or bone cultures can replace animal tests. Genetically modified animals offer new scope to observe disease processes in specifically bred models. The use of animals is futher reduced by non-invasive methods or preliminary screening in non-animal test. Refinement has reduced animals's distress, pain and suffering through sterile procedures, analgesia, and stress-avoidance techniques. For however much we would like to introduce alternative testing methods, they are not simple or straightforward to implement in practice. A single alternative method rarely serves to directly replace a specific animal experiment, since it cannot always reproduce the complex phenomena of the whole body. In addition, it can take 5-10 years to validate and implement a new method for a legally required testing technique. |
