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Alternatives to Animal Experiments
What financial resources are available to the Bf3R?
We have received around six million euros for the pur-
chase of research equipment. We also receive continu-
ous research funding of just under one million euros a
year and have been assigned additional staff.
The Bf3R has already bought new research equipment.
What will this equipment enable you to do?
One of our research goals is to obtain information on the
optical level, in order to better understand the ultrastruc-
ture of cells and tissue. It's easy to imagine a room the
size of an office – perhaps with a desk, a chair and a
computer. But if you try to imagine this room in a size
as small as a thousandth of a pinhead, it's impossible.
Human beings are heavily dependent on their spatial
perception skills. But information on rooms as tiny as the
one I mentioned can help us to understand how complex
organs work, something that is particularly beneficial in
the field of research into alternative methods. Nowadays,
areas of this kind can be depicted spatially with the help
of high resolution imaging methods. We bought the rele-
vant equipment so that we can use this gigantic technical
advance for our purposes. In this way, we can investigate
processes on a cellular level in organs and develop cell
and tissue culture methods with which animal experi-
ments can be substituted or reduced.
Does the Bf3R award research funds to projects for the
development of alternative methods?
ZEBET has been inviting bids for project funding for more
than 20 years. Promoting research in this way is of major
importance in Germany, as it provides start-up finance in
the field of alternative method research. Funding is avail-
able to scientists who have promising ideas but cannot
point to the kind of scientific findings that would pique
the interest of the big funders of research. Our start-up
finance concept enables the scientists to generate data
for two to three years so that they can subsequently apply
for larger-scale funding.
What alternatives exist; what has already been achieved?
A wide range of different technologies (cell culture mod-
els, omics technologies, imaging techniques etc.) are
already being used in the many biomedical research
laboratories around the world that do without animal ex-
periments and generate new knowledge and insights in
the field of basic research.
In the field of application-focused science, there are
already several OECD-audited and validated methods
which can be used, for example, to test the irritant poten-
tial of chemicals on skin models. As a result, the number
of animal experiments in this field is lower than it otherwise
would be. There are also cases in which an animal experi-
ment is funded – in cases where there is uncertainty re-
garding the results obtained by other means, for example.
Why is the number of animal experiments on the rise?
The implementation of the EU Directive on the protection
of laboratory animals into national law in 2013 also ne-
cessitated a new version of the regulation on the statisti-
cal reporting of laboratory animals with an extension of
the obligation to report the use of laboratory animals. Ac-
cordingly, the use of cephalopods (e. g. squid, octopus),
the larvae of vertebrates and the breeding of genetically
modified animals have to be reported.
Has the Bf3R already achieved any success?
In my opinion, absolutely. During the short time since it
was founded, the Bf3R has drawn up the first ever inter-
national proposal for the assessment of the severitiy of
genetically altered fish (bony fish, teleostei), thereby cre-
ating a common basis for the categorisation of severity
of fish by the authorities, researchers and legal experts.
There are still a few gaps that need to be closed by bio-
logical research, but this kind of consensus is necessary,
even if it is only of a preliminary nature.
The AnimalTestInfo database is a further success sto-
ry, because it is the only database of its kind in the world.
It is unique because it provides the public with transpar-
ent information on animal experiments, and because it
supplies new and detailed information on animal experi-
ments in Germany that enables us to more effectively
identify research fields for the development of new alter-
native methods. The database not only supports our own
research, but also helps us to provide scientific advice
on promotion measures in the field of alternative method
research in Germany and Europe.
Last but not least, there is the scientific article entitled
“The ‘reasonable cause’, for killing excess animals, a
classic question of animal welfare law in the context of
biomedical research”. The concept of the “reasonable
cause” is one of the most difficult and most frequently
discussed problems in the German animal welfare law.
This article illustrated the potential conflict between mod-
ern biomedical research and the concerns of animal
welfare, and outlined solution approaches.
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Publications of the Bf3R
The animal experimentation quandary: stuck between
legislation and scientific freedom.
In: EMBO reports (DOI: 10.15252/embr.201642354)
Considerations for a European animal welfare standard to
evaluate adverse phenotypes in teleost fish.
In: The EMBO Journal (DOI: 10.15252/embj.201694448)
Laboratory animals: German initiative opens up animal data.
In: Nature (DOI: 10.1038/519033d)
Der “vernünftige Grund“ zur Tötung von überzähligen Tieren
(The “reasonable cause” for killing excess animals).
In: Natur und Recht (DOI: 10.1007/s10357-015-2903-9)