The 3Rs of animal research & beyond

Published on June 30, 2024   24 min

Other Talks in the Series: Animal Models in Biomedical Research

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The 3Rs of Animal Research and Beyond Enabling High-Quality Humane Research Involving Animals My name is Dave Lewis. I'm a professor of education for professional and sustainable development in the School of Biomedical Sciences University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.
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Think about animal research. The principal actors are the research animals themselves. These go anything from single-cell protozoa to water fleas, flies, in the United Kingdom, at least, predominantly rats and mice but also can include farm animals, fish or wild animals. They're typically called laboratory animals, however, laboratory is not only the traditional bioscience research laboratory but could be a farm. It could be a wildlife park. It could be a zoo. We use animals for many research purposes which include understanding human and animal biology and disease, to develop new medicines, for safety testing, for education and training in higher education. The laws governing animal research across the world vary considerably. Many countries don't have any laws governing animal research specifically. They might be in other laws as well. Similarly, ethical review and ethics committees are in their infancy or non-existent in many parts of the world. Animals cannot give informed consent. Therefore working with research animals is a privilege and not a right.
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If we have to work with research animals, then we have to minimize the harm to them. This involves the principles of humane experimental technique introduced by Russell and Burch in 1959 also known as the 3Rs. So replacement as getting rid of the use of animals in research, refinement, minimizing their pain, suffering and distress and reduction, reducing the number of animals that we use.

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