Alternatives To Animal Testing

Many scientists and governments say that animal testing should cause as little suffering as possible, and some argue that further alternatives to animal testing need to be developed. The "three Rs", first described by Russell and Burch in 1959, are guiding principles for the use of animals in research in many countries:

1. Replacement refers to the preferred use of non-animal methods over animal methods whenever it is possible to achieve the same scientific aim.
2. Reduction refers to methods that enable researchers to obtain comparable levels of information from fewer animals, or to obtain more information from the same number of animals.
3. Refinement refers to methods that alleviate or minimize potential pain, suffering or distress, and enhance animal welfare for the animals used.

There is agreement on both sides of the debate that reduction and refinement of experiments on animals should be an important goal for the industries involved. Two major alternatives to in vivo animal testing are in vitro cell culture techniques and in silico computer simulation. However, some claim they are not true alternatives since simulations use data from prior animal experiments and cultured cells often require animal derived products, such as serum. Others say that they cannot replace animals completely as they are unlikely to ever provide enough information about the complex interactions of living systems. Other alternatives include the use of humans for skin irritancy tests and donated human blood for pyrogenicity studies. Another alternative is so-called microdosing, in which the basic behaviour of drugs is assessed using human volunteers receiving doses well below those expected to produce whole-body effects. While microdosing produces important information about pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics it does not reveal information about toxicity or toxicology. Furthermore, it was noted by the Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments that despite the use of microdosing "animal studies will still be required".