11 documents found, page 1 of 2

From Unpleasant to Unbearable-Why and How to Implement an Upper Limit to Pain A...

The focus of this paper is the requirement that the use of live animals in experiments and in vivo assays should never be allowed if those uses involve severe suffering. This requirement was first implemented in Danish legislation, was later adopted by the European Union, and has had limited uptake in North America. Animal suffering can arise from exposure to a wide range of different external and internal even...

Harm-benefit analysis - what is the added value? A review of alternative strate...

Animal experiments are widely required to comply with the 3Rs, to minimise harm to the animals and to serve certain purposes in order to be ethically acceptable. Recently, however, there has been a drift towards adding a so-called harm-benefit analysis as an additional requirement in assessing experiments. According to this, an experiment should only be allowed if there is a positive balance when the expected h...

Researchers' attitudes to the 3Rs - An upturned hierarchy?

Animal use in biomedical research is generally justified by its potential benefits to the health of humans, or other animals, or the environment. However, ethical acceptability also requires scientists to limit harm to animals in their research. Training in laboratory animal science (LAS) helps scientists to do this by promoting best practice and the 3Rs. This study evaluated scientists' awareness and applicati...

Protecting animals and enabling research in the European Union: an overview of ...

In 1986, European Directive 86/609/EEC, regulating the use of animals in research, was one of the first examples of common legislation to set standards for animal protection across the Member States of the former European Economic Community (EEC), now the European Union (EU), with the aim of securing a level European playing field. Starting in 2002, a process of revising European animal experimentation legislat...

Is it acceptable to use animals to model obese humans? - A critical discussion ...

Animal use in medical research is widely accepted on the basis that it may help to save human lives and improve their quality. Recently, however, objections have been made specifically to the use of animals in scientific investigation of human obesity. This paper discusses two arguments for the view that this form of animal use, unlike some other forms of animal-based medical research, cannot be defended. The f...

Welfare assessment in transgenic pigs expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP)

Since large animal transgenesis has been successfully attempted for the first time about 25 years ago, the technology has been applied in various lines of transgenic pigs. Nevertheless one of the concerns with the technology - animal welfare - has not been approached through systematic assessment and statements regarding the welfare of transgenic pigs have been based on anecdotal observations during early stage...

Breeding for behavioural change in farm animals: Practical, economic and ethica...

In farm animal breeding, behavioural traits are rarely included in selection programmes despite their potential to improve animal production and welfare. Breeding goals have been broadened beyond production traits in most farm animal species to include health and functional traits, and opportunities exist to increase the inclusion of behaviour in breeding indices. On a technical level, breeding for behaviour pr...

Validating animal models for preclinical research: a scientific and ethical dis...

The use of animals to model humans in biomedical research relies on the notion that basic processes are sufficiently similar across species to allow extrapolation. Animal model validity is discussed in terms of the similarity between the model and human condition it is intended to model, but no formal validation of models is applied. There is a stark contrast here with non-animal alternatives in toxicology and ...

“What’s wrong with my monkey?” Ethical perspectives on germline transgenesis in...

The birth of the first transgenic primate to have inherited a transgene from its parents opens the possibility to set up transgenic marmoset colonies, as these monkeys are small and relatively easy to keep and breed in research facilities. The prospect of transgenic marmoset models of human disease, readily available in the way that transgenic laboratory mice are currently, prompts excitement in the scientific ...

Ethics and refinement in animal research