CAAT Newsletter: Vol. 15, No. 1, Fall 1997

News On The Net

Of Mice and MABs

Following a summer of wondering whether the U.S. government would grant a ban on the use of animals to produce monoclonal antibodies (MABs), CAAT and the National Institutes of Health Office for Protection from Research Risks sponsored a workshop in September on alternatives to the ascites method. Scientists presented several viable alternatives to mice for MABs production and discussed issues of cost and effectiveness. Representatives of the NIH and U.S. Department of Agriculture also discussed regulatory issues, and the NIH announced its decision to deny the petition by the American Anti-Vivisection Society for a ban. The full text of the NIH ruling, details about alternative methods of MAB production, preliminary conclusions from the workshop, the ECVAM report recommending a European bar on the ascites method, and the full proceedings of the workshop are available on Altweb.

ECVAM Reports Available Online

All 26 reports produced by the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) will soon be available on Altweb.

Currently, reports number 23 and 25 are posted but all should be available by the end of the year.

These reports are reprinted with the permission of ECVAM.

Spielmann Wins Russell and Burch Award

Horst Spielmann, head of the German National Center for the Documentation and Evaluation of Alternatives to Animal Experiments, has received the 1997 Russell and Burch Award from the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

The award is presented annually to a scientist who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of alternatives, and in particular, the Three Rs approach to alternatives--namely, methods that refine existing tests to minimize animal pain and suffering, reduce the number of animals needed for a test, or replace whole animals with in vitro or other methods.

The award honors the work of William Russell and Rex Burch, who launched the Three Rs approach in 1959 with the publication of their book, The Principles of Humane Experimental Technique.

HSUS presented Spielmann with the award at a dinner in his honor Nov. 12. He also received a specially bound volume of Russell and Burch's book, signed personally by the authors, as well as a trophy and $5,000.

At the center, better known by its German abbreviation, ZEBET, Spielmann has conducted research, managed multi-laboratory projects, and served on many advisory boards.

Mechanisms of Toxicity

Also in September, CAAT and the Industrial in vitro Toxicology Group (IIVTG) sponsored a symposium on "Mechanisms of Toxicity." The symposium focused on recent research involving the use of in vitro methods to study cellular and subcellular response to toxicity. A few highlights:

• An in vitro technique for studying compounds which may cause testicular damage seems to offer several advantages over in vivo tests.
• in vitro assays of environmental chemicals may help researchers by predicting in vivo effects and provide insights to their interaction with the endocrine system.
• in vitro tests offer an opportunity to study neurotoxins that cannot be examined easily in vivo due to the complexity of the nervous system.

Presentations and/or abstracts of talks from the symposium are available on Altweb.

Using Fewer Animals to Fight Chemical Warfare

The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense (USAMRICD) says a commitment in 1993 to develop "reduction, refinement, and replacement strategies for the use of animals in research" has resulted in a dramatic reduction in the number of animals, particularly mice, it uses. The USAMRICD, accredited by AAALAC since 1984, has used computer modeling, in vitro methods, and less sentient animal species to meet its goals. According to a report by USAMRICD available on Altweb, from fiscal year 1991 to fiscal year 1996, the Institute reduced its reliance on animals by 68%.