Laboratory Animal Science

1
Laboratory Animal Science

• Alternatives

2
EC Directive 86/609

• Article 23 (1 ) of the EC directive 86/609
  requires that ' The commission and Member states
  should encourage research into the development
  and validation of alternative techniques which
  could provide the same level of information as
  that obtained in experiments using animals , but
  which involve fewer animals or which entail less
  painful procedures and shall take such steps as
  they consider appropriate to encourage researchin
  this field. The commission shall monitor trends
  in experimental methods. '

3
Reasons for using Alternatives

• Scientific
• Better reproducability
• Cheaper
• Quicker
• Ethical \ Legal
• Duty of Care and trust

4
3 RSRussell BurchThe Principles of Humane
Experimental Technique

• Reduction
• Refinement
• Replacement

5
Reduction

• UK usage dropped by 40 in 10 years
• Ireland 1984 36,000 1992 22,000
• Ireland 1994 42,000 1995 52,606 (9,820 fish)
  Stricter controls and reporting
• Fewer animals in Better planned experiments,
  Reduced undergraduate teaching, by use of
  replacements

6
Irish Animal Use Numbers

• Year. Tot. Mice Rats GPigs Rabbits Fish
  Frogs
• 86 31315 18647 6694 367 976 0 10
• 87 32666 5657 7120 335 2521 250 10
• 88 32896 21832 4767 521 1444 0
  538
• 89 32155 19348 6273 557 1469 110 0
• 90 35413 23470 5391 617 1901 900 0
• 91 25199 17550 3053 423 1112 0 4
• 92 22469 15736 2559 464 1586 150 0
• 93 42244 20427 12712 1812 2050 62
  11
• 94 48803 18535 13456 1400 1945 9076 0
• 95 56606 21963 16637 2665 2484 9820 0

7
Refinement

• Nos Used in specific experiments
• Use of Humane end points
• Modern analgesics and Anaesthetics
• Use of cell lines derived from animals

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Replacement

• In-vitro cell lines
• Bacterial mutagenicity tests Ames test
• Irritancy tests
• EYTEX, LAL, Neutral Red Marker
• Validation
• Computers
• Databases
• Teaching videos, models etc

9
Future

• Basic Research
• Safety testing
• Teaching