NEW ORLEANS – The HSUS is asking researchers to minimize animal
pain and distress in the production of antibodies. The HSUS
will bring together experts to discuss various approaches for
achieving this goal at a workshop to be held on Sunday.
The workshop is being held Sunday as a satellite meeting to
the Fourth World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the
Life Sciences in New Orleans. Antibodies are research tools
used widely in immunological research. This workshop is the
second of a series that The HSUS will host in an effort to
reduce and eventually eliminate pain and distress experienced
by animals in research and to improve the quality of scientific
research.
At the workshop, ten experts from countries around the
world, including Australia, Sweden, The Netherlands, United
Kingdom and the United States, will be discussing the
production of polyclonal antibodies and its associated animal
welfare concerns.
Dr. Coenraad Hendriksen from the National Institute of
Public Health and Environmental Protection in The Netherlands
is chairing the workshop. A paper written by Dr. Hendriksen for
the workshop, as well as guidelines on antibody production
recently published by the Canadian Council on Animal Care, will
serve as the main documents for discussion. Specific discussion
topics will include how to determine appropriate species for
antibody production, which products and techniques result in
the least amount of pain and distress to the animals, and
possible alternatives to the direct use of whole animals for
antibody production, such as the production of avian antibodies
using egg yolk.
“The research community is responsible for the ongoing
development and implementation of techniques that replace the
use of animals altogether, reduce the number of animals used,
or refine techniques so that they result in decreased animal
pain and distress,” says Dr. Andrew Rowan, HSUS senior vice
president for research, education and international issues.
“The HSUS is holding this workshop in order to develop expert
recommendations on minimizing animal pain and distress in this
area of immunological research, so that we can share these
promptly with the research community.”
The recommendations derived from this workshop will soon be
available on The HSUS’ website alongside those from a workshop
on toxicological methods that was hosted by The HSUS in 1999.
The new recommendations will also be distributed to over 2,000
Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees and other members
of the research community through The HSUS’s quarterly
newsletter, The Pain & Distress Report.
