Alternatives to Reducing Animal Use for Acute Toxicity Testing

The report of a workshop that focused on developing a strategy for reducing and replacing the use of animals in acute systemic toxicity testing has been published.

Acute systemic toxicity testing in animals is required by various regulatory agencies and involves exposing animals to a test substance orally, dermally, or via inhalation, then counting the number of animals who died as a result.

More than 60 experts from regulatory agencies, industry, academia, and NGOs attended the September 2015 workshop to discuss alternatives to these tests that better protect human health and do not use animals.

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‘The alternative approaches discussed at the workshop will allow researchers to assess human toxicity more rapidly and accurately while also reducing costs and not harming animals.’

A report outlining the findings of the international expert workshop "Alternative Approaches for Identifying Acute Systemic Toxicity: Moving From Research to Regulatory Testing" was published in the journal Toxicology In Vitro.

The workshop focused on developing a strategy for reducing and replacing the use of animals in acute systemic toxicity testing, and recommendations included gathering high-quality reference data, expanding education on the use and interpretation of animal-free test methods, and global harmonization. Work to implement the recommendations is ongoing.

The workshop was held in September 2015 at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. It was co-hosted by the PETA International Science Consortium, the NTP Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods (NICEATM), and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

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Co-authors of the report include the Consortium, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, the European Union Reference Laboratory for Alternatives to Animal Testing (EURL ECVAM), The Dow Chemical Company, Rutgers University, and Utrecht University, among others.

Dr. Amy Clippinger, Associate Director of the Consortium, says, "The alternative approaches discussed at the workshop will allow us to assess human toxicity more rapidly and accurately while also reducing costs and not harming animals."

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Following the workshop, the Consortium and NICEATM co-sponsored an expert meeting focused on alternative approaches to acute inhalation toxicity testing in September 2016 in Bethesda, Maryland.

Source-Eurekalert

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