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Alternatives: Testing Without Torture
Besides saving countless animal lives, alternatives to animal tests are efficient and
reliable. Unlike crude, archaic animal tests, non-animal methods usually take less
time to complete, cost only a fraction of what the animal experiments that they
replace cost, and are not plagued with species differences that make extrapolation
difficult or impossible. Effective, affordable, and humane research methods include
studies of human populations, volunteers, and patients as well as sophisticated in
vitro, genomic, and computer-modeling techniques.
Forward-thinking companies are exploring modern alternatives. For example,
Pharmagene Laboratories, based in Royston, England, is the first company to use
only human tissues and sophisticated computer technology in the process of drug
development and testing. With tools from molecular biology, biochemistry, and
analytical pharmacology, Pharmagene conducts extensive studies of human genes
and how drugs affect those genes or the proteins they make. While some
companies have used animal tissues for this purpose, Pharmagene scientists
believe that the discovery process is much more efficient with human tissues. If
you have information on human genes, whats the point of going back to animals?
says Pharmagene cofounder Gordon Baxter.(1)
Alternatives to Animals in Research
Comparative studies of human populations allow doctors and scientists to discover
the root causes of human diseases and disorders so that preventive action can be
taken. Epidemiological studies led to the discoveries of the relationship between
smoking and cancer and to the identification of heart disease risk factors.(2)
Conversely, tobacco company executives relied on misleading animal-based
studies to deny the link between smoking and cancer as recently as 1994.(3)
Population studies demonstrated the mechanism of the transmission of AIDS and
other infectious diseases and also showed how these diseases can be prevented,
whereas animal studies have produced no real results in terms of preventing or
treating AIDS.(4) The National Institutes of Health have reported that more than 80
HIV/AIDS vaccines that have passed animal testing have failed in human clinical
trials.(5) As the associate editor of the British Medical Journal stated, When it
comes to testing HIV vaccines, only humans will do.(6)
In the course of treating patients, much has been learned about the causes of
diseases and disorders. Studies of human patients using sophisticated scanning
technology (e.g., MRI, fMRI, PET, and CT) have isolated abnormalities in the brains
of patients with schizophrenia and other disorders.(7)
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Cell and tissue culture (in vitro) studies are used to screen for anti-cancer, anti-
AIDS, and other types of drugs, and they are also a means of producing and
testing a number of other pharmaceutical products, including vaccines, antibiotics,
and therapeutic proteins. The U.S. National Disease Research Interchange
provides human tissue to scientists investigating diabetes, cancer, cystic fibrosis,
muscular dystrophy, glaucoma, and other human diseases. In vitro genetic
research has isolated specific markers, genes, and proteins associated with
Alzheimers disease, muscular dystrophy, schizophrenia, and other inherited
diseases. A 3-dimensional model of breast cancer has recently been developed
that will allow investigators to study the earliest stages of breast cancer and test
potential treatments. Rather than studying cancer in rodents, this model, which
uses both healthy and cancerous human tissue, effectively allows the study of
cancer as it develops in humans.(8)
Those who experiment on animals artificially induce disease; clinical investigators
study people who are already ill with naturally occurring diseases or who have died.
Animal experimenters want a disposable research subject who can be
manipulated as desired and killed when convenient; clinicians must do no harm to
their patients or study participants. Animal experimenters face the unavoidable fact
that their artificially created animal model can never fully replicate the human
condition, whereas clinical investigators know that the results of their work are
directly relevant to people.
Alternatives to Animals in Testing
Alternatives to the use of animals in toxicity testing include replacing animal tests
with non-animal methods, as well as modifying animal-based tests to reduce the
number of animals used and to minimize pain and distress. Non-animal tests are
generally faster and less expensive than the animal tests they replace and improve
upon.
To date, several non-animal test methods have been formally validated and
accepted by some countries as replacements for an existing animal test. Examples
include the following:
An embryonic stem cell test, using mouse-derived cells to assess potential
toxicity to developing embryos, has been validated as a partial replacement for
birth-defect testing in rats and rabbits.(9)
The 3T3 Neutral Red Uptake Phototoxicity Test uses cells grown in culture to
assess the potential for sunlight-induced (photo) irritation to the skin.
Human skin model tests are now in use, including the validated EpiDerm test,
which has been accepted almost universally as a total replacement for skin
corrosion studies in rabbits.(10)
The use of human skin leftover from surgical procedures or donated cadavers
can be used to measure the rate at which a chemical is able to penetrate the
skin.
Microdosing can provide information on the safety of an experimental drug and
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how it is metabolized in the body by administering an extremely small one-time
dose that is well below the threshold necessary for any potential pharmacologic
effect to take place.(11)
While effective non-animal test methods become more and more numerous,
animal-based toxicology remains, as researcher Thomas Hartung wrote, frozen in
time, using and accepting the same old animal models again and again, often
without stringent examination of their validity.(12)
For more detailed information about non-animal test methods that are available or
under development, visit ECVAM.jrc.it.
Alternatives to Animals in Education
The majority of medical schools in the U.S., including Harvard, Stanford, and Yale,
have replaced their use of live animals in physiology, pharmacology, and/or
surgical-training exercises with humane and effective non-animal teaching
methods, including observation of actual human cardiac bypass surgery, patient
simulators, cadavers, sophisticated computer programs, and more. An increasing
number of veterinary schools have been able to employ similar humane
educational alternatives, thereby saving the lives of countless animals who in the
past would have been killed for the purposes of dissection or suffered through
unnecessary surgeries.
In addition to being more humane, non-animal teaching tools such as computer
simulations, multimedia CD-ROMs, and models are also more economical than
traditional animal-based teaching exercises.(13) Whereas the traditional
approach involves the acquisition and disposal of animals on an ongoing basis,
purchasing a set of CD-ROMs represents a one-time expenditure for a product that
can be used repeatedly for many years. Schools can save tens of thousands of
dollars each year by implementing reusable replacements for animal specimens.
Studies, including the following examples, have shown that non-animal teaching
methods are as effective as animal methods are:
A study of first-year biology undergraduates found that examination results of
those students who used model rats were equivalent to those of students who
had performed rat dissections.(14)
A similar study examined a class of first-year biology students, half of whom
used traditional hands on laboratories while the remainder used computer
software. The knowledge of biology among the computer-taught students
increased significantly more than did that of the traditional hands on group.
(15)
A study of students who learned anatomy by doing something as simple as
building clay sculptures of each body system found that they scored significantly
higher on both low- and high-difficulty questions than their classmates who
performed animal dissections.(16)
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Several Web sites provide descriptions, prices, and ordering information for
thousands of alternative learning materials. The following are three excellent
databases that focus specifically on alternatives in education:
Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association
InterNICHE
Norwegian Inventory of Audiovisuals (NORINA)
The following animal protection organizations have established alternatives loan
programs for students who need to borrow a non-animal software program or other
teaching tool in order to satisfy a course requirement so that they will not have to
bear the financial burden of purchasing the product:
Ethical Science Education Coalition: 617-367-9143
Humane Society of the United States: 301-258-3041
National Anti-Vivisection Society: 1-800-888-NAVS
Some veterinary schools have also established willed body donation programs.
These programs allow clients of veterinary clinics to donate the bodies of their
companion animals after they have died a natural death. The cadaver can then be
used to train students. Animal cadavers obtained in this way are considered
ethically sourced.(17)
What You Can Do
Nearly all federally funded research is paid for with your tax dollars. Two of the
main funders of animal-based research in North America, the U.S. National
Institutes of Health and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, need to hear
that you dont want your tax dollars used to underwrite animal experiments,
whatever their purpose.
Write to the heads of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and
Drug Administration, the National Toxicology Program, and Health Canada and urge
them to stop requiring cruel and obsolete animal tests for pharmaceuticals and to
allow companies to substitute in vitro tests.
Whether you are a student, a parent, or a concerned taxpayer, you can act to end
the use of animals in your citys educational system. If you are expected to perform
or observe a dissection, talk to your teacher as early as possible about alternative
projects. Call the Dissection Hotline at 1-800-922-FROG (3764) for tips on what to
say and how to proceed. If there is an animal rights group at your school or in your
community, ask for help. Parents can urge their local Parent-Teacher Association to
ask the area superintendent of schools or school board to consider a proposal to
ban animal-based teaching exercises in public schools or at least give all students
the option of doing a non-animal project. It may help to collect signatures on a
petition and to present the school board with information on the cruelty of animal-
based teaching exercises and on readily available alternatives.
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If you are applying to medical or veterinary school, be sure to inquire about the
teaching methods at any school that you are considering.
If you own stock in a company that conducts animal tests, introduce a shareholder
resolution opposing the use of animals.
References
1) Andy Coghlan, Pioneers Cut Out Animal Experiments, New Scientist 31 Aug.
1996.
2) Christopher Anderegg et al., A Critical Look at Animal Experimentation, Medical
Research Modernization Committee, 2002.
3) Stanton Glantz, A Selection of OSHA Comments on Lung Cancer, Tobacco.org,
last accessed 14 May 2009.
4) Samuel Baron, M.D., et al., Medical Microbiology, 4th ed., University of Texas:
Churchill Livingstone Inc., 1996.
5) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Clinical Trials of HIV
Vaccines, National Institutes of Health, 19 Sept. 2008.
6) Alison Tonks, Quest for the AIDS Vaccine, British Medical Journal 334 (2007):
1346-8.
7) Kelvin O. Lim et al., In Vivo Structural Brain Assessment, The American College
of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2000.
8) Michael Balls, The Use of Scientifically-Validated In Vitro Tests for
Embryotoxicity, European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods, 3 June
2002.
9) Deborah L. Holliday et al., Novel Multicellular Organotypic Models of Normal and
Malignant Breast: Tools for Dissecting the Role of the Microenvironment in Breast
Cancer Progression, Breast Cancer Research, 11 (2009): R3.
10) Michael Balls, Statement on the Application of the Epiderm Human Skin
Model for Skin Corrosivity Testing, European Centre for the Validation of
Alternative Methods, 21 Mar. 2000.
11) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). Guidance for Industry,
Investigators, and Reviewers: Exploratory IND Studies, Rockville, Md.: CDER, 2006.
12) Marcel Leist et al., The Dawning of a New Age of Toxicology, ALTEX 25
(2008): 102.
13) Jonathan Balcombe, Ph.D., The Use of Animals in Higher Education: Problems,
Alternatives, and Recommendations, Washington, D.C.: Humane Society Press,
2000.
14) Balcombe.
15) Balcombe.
16) Waters et al., Cat Dissection vs. Sculpting Human Structures in Clay: An
Analysis of Two Approaches to Undergraduate Human Anatomy Laboratory
Education, Advances in Physiology Education 29 (2005): 27-34.
17) Nick Jukes. Toward a Humane Veterinary Education, Journal of Veterinary
Medical Education 32.4 (2005): 454-60.
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