[Reducing the use of laboratory animals].
Since 1959, when Russel and Burch formulated the 3Rs principle (Reduce, Replace, Refine), the scientific community has been attempting to reduce the use of laboratory animals for research purposes. Current regulatory guidelines take this principle into account. Thanks to scientific and technical progress, and advances in bioinformatics, new tools are now available that reduce the need for laboratory animals, albeit without totally replacing them. Implementation of the International Conference on Harmonization recommendations in 1990 represented a major step forward, notably by helping to avoid duplication of studies using laboratory animals. The use of animals for cosmetics testing is now forbidden in the European Union. Although new in vitro and in silico models remain to be validated, they are proving particularly useful during the early stages of product development, by avoiding experimental studies of chemicals that are ineffective or excessively toxic. The success of these measures is reflected in the results of a European study showing a fall, between 1996 and 2005, in the number of laboratory animals used for research and development, despite a large increase in overall research activities. The challenge for the next decade is to amplify this trend.
Claude
Nancy
N
Institut de Recherches internationales Servier, 6, place des Pléiades, 92415 Courbevoie cedex. nancy.claude@fr.netgrs.com
D032761:Animal Experimentation / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D000818:Animals; D000830:Animals, Laboratory; D019295:Computational Biology; D006801:Humans