Question: Do you test products on animals??

David Walker-Sünderhauf answered on 10 Mar 2019: last edited 10 Mar 2019 12:41 pm

I don’t personally either – I work with bacteria. Some other people in my lab do work with moth larvae though: Galleria mellonella. They inject different bacteria and see under which conditions the larvae manage to fight off the bacterial infection. (I know this probably won’t make me get any votes from you 😛 )
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Every experiment with animals first goes through an ethical review process: If you want to test things on animals, you have to write down exactly what you want to do, why, and how many animals you will need (this get more and more strict if you move from moth larvae to mice for instance). A panel at the university will then review the ethical application and decide if it’s ok to go ahead.
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The golden rule in animal testing is called “The three R’s”:
Replace – use a different way to study what you want to that avoids animals.
Reduce – if that isn’t possible, reduce the number of animals: use as few as possible.
Refine – finally, refine the way you are working with animals: minimise pain and keep your animals in good welfare standards.
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Unfortunately, it is really important (especially in drug development) to use animals at some point in the research process. If you have a whole body there is much more going on, and drugs can have unexpected effects that you wouldn’t think of if you do all your work in a petri dish only!