Alternatives to animal experimentation in biomedical education.

In education, it is important that students are not put in a position in which they are forced to participate in animal experiments or to use dead animals, killed especially for such purposes. Continued use of animal experiments to demonstrate known facts or teach skills which can be taught using non-animal methods evidences only a lack of sensitivity towards students who still maintain respect for life. In countries where animal testing in education is reduced to close to zero, there is no evidence that the students who are being trained are less capable or qualified.

Alternatives to animal experimentation in basic research.

In contrast to animal testing required by law to guarantee minimum safety standards for the licensing of drugs and chemicals, there are no regulations in basic research forcing scientists to perform animal tests. By (usually) free choice, questions are posed and hypotheses are examined which, in many cases, can only be answered by means of animal tests. Just as easily, different questions could be asked or different hypotheses could be examined which do not require animal tests.

Transgenic Animals within the 3R concept.

There are positive examples of transgenic animals where transgenic technology has allowed the use of less animals to answer a specific research question. On the other hand, it requires large numbers of animals to produce transgenic strains. And there remains the question, when these animals show clinical signs of disease, if they suffer more or less than their "pretransgenic" counterparts.

Replacement of the frog test in physiology teaching by the myograph: practical validation in Germany.

The myograph is a newly developed instrument to replace the classical frog experiments in physiology teaching by testing on volunteers, usually by self-testing of the students. First experiences with the myograph obtained during physiology teaching at four universities in Germany are summarized and evaluated. The myograph was tested in four additional universities.

Study about the grant programme of the German BMBF for the promotion of alternatives to animal experiments.

From 1980 until 1991, 98 research projects covering a total amount of 86.1 million German Marks were sponsored by the German Ministry for Education, Science, Research, and Technology in a research grant programme for the promotion of alternatives to animal experiments. The German Ministry for Education, Science, Research, and Technology appointed the German foundation SET (Foundation for the Promotion of Research on Replacement and Supplementary Methods for the Reduction of Animal Experiments) to carry out an essay on the efficiency of this grant programme.