Suffering for science

Fifty years ago, William Russell, a classics scholar,

and Rex Burch, a microbiologist, outlined how the use of

animals in scientific research could be made more humane.

They wanted scientists to restrict the use of animals, to refine

their experiments to minimise distress and to replace testing

on animals with alternative techniques. Although the “3Rs”

have become a guiding principle, the number of animals used

today remains far higher than Russell and Burch would have

accepted. Finally, that may be changing. On May 5th the

European Parliament voted to update the rules on the use of

animals in research.

The European directive on how animals should be

treated dates from 1986, long before research led to the

breeding of the first creatures that carried the genes of

another species. Some countries have more restrictions

than others. Britain, for example, uses far fewer primates

in scientific research than does France. The European

Commission said in November 2008 that it wanted to update

the rules to better protect laboratory animals throughout

Europe. It received hundreds of amendments, but has

adopted few of them.

In particular, the politicians decided against an

outright ban on the use of great apes. Instead they voted to

allow such experiments only when they are intended to

conserve the number of chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and

orang-utans, or when using these species becomes essential

to tackling a disease that threatens people. In practice, no

great apes have been used in Europe for years and there are

no breeding colonies from which to take them. In America,

chimpanzees are being used to develop a vaccine for

hepatitis C because they are the only creatures, other than

humans, to be afflicted by the disease.

Another proposal was to ban the use of primates

caught in the wild. Scientists prefer to work with the

offspring of animals raised in laboratories because

knowledge of the creatures’ complete medical history makes

them more dependable. Russell and Burch would have been

pleased that progress is being made, but appalled at its

slow pace.

Internet: www.economist.com (adapted).