A new report by the National Academy of Sciences points the way towards a future that can spare untold millions of animals the miseries of laboratory testing.
"This report is a landmark statement that testing should move away from a reliance on decades old animal tests," said Martin Stephens, HSUS vice president of animal research issues. Stephens served as a member of the committee that developed the report.
Toxicity testing, which is the focus of the report, involves several million animals per year in the United States alone, including dogs, mice, primates, rabbits and rats. The substances tested include chemicals and products such as solvents, paints, cleaners and cosmetics. Testing involves force feeding, applying the substance on skin or eyes, injection and inhalation.
"New approaches and tools are pointing the way towards a future that better addresses chemical safety and animal welfare," said Stephens. "The current animal-based methods do not have the ability to handle the enormous backlog of untested agents or to meet new and multiplying challenges of chemical safety."
The report, which is entitled "Toxicity Testing in the Twenty-first Century: A Vision and A Strategy," proposes a new approach that focuses on monitoring "toxicity pathways" at the molecular level, emphasizing human-based cells and processes, instead of examining observable health effects in animals. It was prepared by the Committee on Toxicity Testing and Assessment of Environmental Agents, convened by the National Research Council of the National Academies.
The 98-page report seeks to bring toxicity testing into the 21st century by incorporating emerging biological information and technical approaches, such as systems biology, computational biology and bioinformatics. The report also points to sophisticated tools such as micro-arrays that assess chemically induced changes in, for example, the genes (genomics), as indicative of the kinds of testing of the future.
The report recognizes that its vision and strategy will require years and substantial resources to implement. It notes that for some complex types of toxicity, some degree of testing in animals "might continue to be necessary" (p. 82). However, according to a statement released today by the Academy, "Over time, the need for traditional animal testing could be greatly reduced, and possibly even eliminated someday."
The HSUS works towards the day when animals are no longer used in harmful research or testing, and we do so in ways that promote good science as well as animal welfare, primarily by promoting alternative methods that have the potential to accomplish one or more of the "Three Rs," namely, replacing or reducing the use of animals or refining procedures so that animal experience less suffering.
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