The Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing is an academic center affiliated with the Division of Toxicological Sciences in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Text Size:
CAAT 20th Anniversary Symposium
September 10-11, 2001
PIER 5 HOTEL
711 Eastern Avenue
Baltimore, Maryland
Sponsors: 3M, Avon, Charles River Laboratories, Inc., The Cosmetic, Toiletries, and Fragrance Association, Covance, ExxonMobil Biomedical Sciences, Inc., In Vitro Technologies, Johnson & Johnson, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., Procter & Gamble Company, Revlon
Proceedings for CAAT 20th Anniversary Symposium
Altweb
Frank R. Baker
Procter and Gamble Company
One of the many challenges in the alternatives field has been providing ready access to accurate information about alternative methods. The development of a centralized location for alternatives information, freely available online, has been a goal for 3Rs organizations and is key to achieving progress; however, the expense of such an endeavor required an innovative approach. A international Project Team representing a coalition of the leading organizations in the alternatives/animal welfare/regulatory communities was assembled to envision such an approach. Altweb, the Alternatives to Animal Testing Website, was created in 1997 to provide a gateway to the diverse universe of information and resources existing on the Internet. In addition, Altweb has taken on the secondary role of resource developer, providing to the scientific community useful resources such as online publication archives, a search engine and a pain management database.
More than 30,000 people visit Altweb per month. Altweb's contribution to progress in the 3Rs, as well as the important role played by CAAT in Altweb's creation, development, and management, will be discussed.
Question:
If you are a researcher considering an experiment which traditionally involves whole animal procedures, how do you determine whether an alternative procedure exists?
- Pray the IACUC does not ask
- Assume that if one existed you would know about it
- Ask a colleague
- Search Medline
- or
Question:
If you have found an alternative method -- whether a replacement, reduction or refinement -- How do you know whether it is validated and accepted?
- Not worry about it
- Assume that is the problem of the reviewer
- Contact a regulatory agency
- or
Altweb
The Alternatives to Animal Testing Web Site
Altweb: A Brief History
- Launched October 1, 1997
- With funds from Procter & Gamble, the Humane Society of the United States, and the National Institutes of Health
- Managed by CAAT
Altweb was created to serve as a gateway to alternatives resources, information, and news -- on the internet and beyond
What is Altweb?
- A clearinghouse of information and news
- An altenatives search engine
- A producer of specialty databases and resources, and
- A tool, to help others better develop and use alternative methods
Altweb is Intended to Serve...
- Biomedical researchers
- Industry
- The international regulatory community(ies)
- IACUCs
- Veterinarians, lab technicians, and others who who work with laboratory animals
...as well as
- Educators
- Students
- The animal welfare community
- The international alternatives community
- The general public
Altweb has 5 goals:
- to provide scientists and others with a means for conducting an appropriate and complete alternatives search from one central, easily accessible location
- to serve as a clearinghouse for alternatives information, publications, databases, calendars, and other resources
- to support the creation and maintenance of new alternative resources as needed, when no other organization can/will do so
- to promote the use of alternatives resources by publicizing them on the site, through e-mail, at scientific meetings, or other outreach
- to facilitate communication and collaboration among members of the alternatives community, in particular those who work in database or information management
Altweb Project Team
- Academia
- CAA (UC-Davis)
- Animal welfare
- CLAW (MSPCA)
- HSUS
- SCAW
- Federal government
- EPA
- FDA
- ICCVAM
- NIH (OLAW)
- NLM
- USDA (APHIS & AWIC)
- VA
- International members
- CCAC
- FRAME
- Lab animal unit, Norwegian College of Veterinary Medicine (NORINA)
- The University of Utrecht
- ZEBET
- Industry
- Procter & Gamble
- And, of course, CAAT
Why CAAT?
- CAAT is affiliated with the leading school of public health in the United States
- CAAT's mission requires us to provide "reliable information" about alternatives to others
- CAAT has a 20-year history of working internationally to promote the 3Rs of Russell and Burch
Some statistics...
- Currently, we get about 40,000 visitors per month
- From more than 70 countries
- Spending an average of 9 minutes on site
Altweb as a clearinghouse offers:
- Journals
- Proceedings
- Technical reports
- Books
- Fact sheets
- Alternatives news
- Funding information
- A calendar
- Regulations
- And LINKS...
Altweb as clearinghouse
- Our goal stays the same: to point visitors to the information they need, quickly and easily.
- We maintain the resources we post on our site, but we are happy (eager, even) to see other organizations "take back" their resources and let us point to them.
- Ideally, Altweb would be a list of organized links, with explanatory information.
For example: Special section on MABs
- What are Monoclonal Antibodies? Definition, description, uses, history, issues
- Ascites Method vs. In Vitro Methods: Cost, effectiveness, pain and distress
- MAB Production: Description of Methods
- Policies, regulations, guidelines, recommendations
- Where to get in vitro MABs: Academic Core Centers and Commercial Facilities
...as well as
- Educators
- Students
- The animal welfare community
- The international alternatives community
- The general public
Coming in the next 12 months...
- An alternatives retrospective -- What are the refinement, reduction, and replacement methods that have become accepted in the last 20 years?
The Altweb Search Engine
- Allows users to search approximately 70 pre-selected web sites simultaneously
- Includes Altweb and other CAAT web sites in its search
- Provides access to technical reports, meeting proceedings, journal abstracts, and other documents often not available elsewhere
So why a search engine?
Typically, investigators:
- Consult only one major database (MEDLINE)
- Understand "alternative" to mean replacement, and fail to search for reduction or refinement methods
- Use limited keywords
Investigators, in many cases, fail to find much because...
- The alternatives search comes at the end of protocol development, instead of the beginning
- They resist going to multiple locations for information (dozens of possible databases, hundreds of Internet sites)
- They don't understand how to construct a search (how to select keywords, databases, etc.)
And then they complain that searches are worthless...
"A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history, with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila."
-- Mitch Ratliffe, Technology Review, April 1992
This suggests...
- A whole lot of people are searching for alternatives (or should be)
- Without really knowing how to search, or what they're looking for
- And a lot of science--and animals--may suffer for this lack of knowledge
A recent search of MEDLINE and Altweb:
- Using the keywords "blood-brain barrier and drugs"
- Netted 2,650 results on MEDLINE, 159 results on Altweb
- The first article on Altweb was about an in vitro model
- This publication is not available on MEDLINE
Unfortunately, the most common keywords used by scientists who visit Altweb are...
"Alternative method"
The Policy #12 page will:
- Offer a tutorial on how to search
- Provide step-by-step guidance on constructing an "appropriate and complete search"
- Be developed in collaboration with the USDA, NIH and the Project Team
Altweb Pain Management Database
- Compiled by Tim Allen, technical information specialist at AWIC
- Contains approximately 10,000 records--1990 to the present
- Covers MEDLINE, AGRICOLA, TOXLINE, and AGRIS
- Includes rats, mice, primates, dogs, cats, rabbits, pigs, guinea pigs, birds, sheep, fish, and other exotic species
- Provides species citations and records from human clinical studies relevant to animal research
- Can be searched by species, by drug, or by procedure
- Provides information on available drugs and the side effects of commonly used drugs
- Uses the common chemical name for all drugs
- 98% of the records include detailed abstracts
- 50% of the records include drug dose information
- Will be updated 3 times annually
- Offers descriptors in 3 languages--English, Spanish, and French
Compared to MEDLINE...
- Using the keywords "dog or dogs and thoracotomy"
- MEDLINE returned 10,143 results, while the database offered 17
- All of the citations retrieved by the database were relevant to pain management
Future databases?
Altweb is seeking partners to collaborate with on the following topics:
- Humane endpoints
- Best practices
- Enrichment
What does Altweb need?
- More industry and government funding and support
- Broader academic participation
- Better IACUC awareness of its existence and appreciation of its value
- To continue to grow and contribute in its unique way to the alternatives movement