The US has recently joined the Netherlands in setting end dates for certain types of animal research and testing.
In 2016, the government of the Netherlands decided to phase out the use of animals in regulatory research and testing by 2025. This is part of a paradigm shift to animal-free science, with end dates for animal-free basic research and applied and translational research yet to be determined.
Earlier this month, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made a commitment to reduce animal testing and announced US $4.25 million in funding to five universities for the development of alternative test methods and strategies that reduce, refine, and/or replace vertebrate animal testing. By 2025, all requests for research involving live mammals and funding for such research will be reduced by 30%. All mammal study requests and funding will stop by 2035. In addition, from this year the EPA will hold an annual conference on new non-animal methods (NAMs).
While an end to all animal research and testing can’t come soon enough, this is good news.
New NAMs are available and being used. For example, the European Chemicals Agency noted in a 2017 report that out of the 6,290 substances analysed for the report 89% had at least one data endpoint where an alternative was used instead of a study on animals, and the
most common alternative method was using information on similar substances (read-across), used in 63% of the analysed substances, followed by combining information from different sources (weight of evidence, 43%) and computer modelling (QSAR prediction, 34%).
Australia too has taken a first step towards phasing out animal research – at least that’s how I’d like to see it. So far, it is only a symbolic step. From 1 July 2020, new animal test data for substances solely used in cosmetic products will no longer be acceptable to the regulator (for details see a previous blog post). However, the vast majority of chemical substances used in cosmetics are also used in other products, such as household products, and thus are not affected by this ban. Also, to my knowledge, no cosmetics testing on animals has taken place in Australia for many years.
In contrast, implementation of the recent EPA announcement will see a large reduction in the number of animals currently suffering in labs. The United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal Welfare Act does not cover all mammals. Mice and rats are exempt, and there is no requirement to keep data on the number of rodents used in research and testing. It is estimated that 95% of all animals used in US laboratories are mice and rats, and estimates for annual use vary between 10 million and 100 million. Of these, around 9% are used for toxicity testing.
“I think it’s a big day for the field of alternatives to animal testing,” said Dr. Thomas Hartung, director of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing at Johns Hopkins University. “Officials have long mostly given lip service to the idea of finding substitutes”, he said. This might finally change.
ozsheba 
