Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology

Biography

Biography: Vijay Jagdale

Abstract

Historically, animals have been used in a wide range of scientific research activities that have provided many benefits to society, particularly in relation to the advancement of scientific knowledge, human and veterinary medicine, and the safety of chemical products. These principles seem to unify concerns for better science with causing less pain and distress to the experimental animals. All research with the Animal has the potential to cause pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm to the animals used. Most animals are killed at the end of experiments. Practical advances in the scientific methods can reduce areas of conflict. For this reason, the importance of the three R’s (refinement, reduction and replacement), and especially of the need to find replacements, cannot be overstated. The CCAC's ethic of animal experimentation is based on Smyth's definition of alternatives, i.e. replacement, reduction and refinement; replacement alternative methods which avoid or replace the use of animals. This includes both absolute replacements and relative replacements. Reduction alternatives refers to any strategy that results in fewer animals being used to obtain sufficient and precise data to answer the research question, without compromising animal welfare. Refinement alternatives refer to the modification of experimental procedures to minimize pain and distress. The 3Rs are rich in ambiguities and any implementation requires resolving the dilemma that promoting one R will sometimes directly or indirectly conflict with promoting another. The role of national and international accreditations have considerable impact on maintaining standard animal care and use program while designing animal experiments during discovery phase. IACUC/IAEC authority has responsibility to monitor the animal program as well as approvals of experimentation with ethical considerations. The ideas behind the 3Rs are so intuitively compelling that it is tempting to believe that full implementation is merely a matter of time, and once the 3Rs are widely implemented, the public will fully support any continued laboratory animal use that is deemed necessary in the biomedical research.