Refinement strategies to balance scientific purposes and animal welfare

GULIN, ERNESTO

Mar del Plata

Otro; Reunión Anual de Sociedades Biocientíficas.; 2019

SAIC-SAFE-SAB-SAP-AACYTAL-NANOMEDar-HCS

Animal models play a key role in biomedical research. Regarding parasitology research, the use of several animal species had contributed to unveiling the physiopathology process, explore new diagnosis and chemotherapeutic options anddevelop vaccine candidates to improve animal and human health. However, animal use for research purposes carries legal and ethical responsibilities to preserve animal welfare to the greatest extent possible during the assays. Although manyanimal species and models have been developed for parasitology research, there is still a lack of uniformity and harmonization in pre-clinical in vivo studies. This situation could contribute to the lack of reproducibility crisis in science, increasing the gap between basic and clinical research. In this lecture, we will introduce some new concepts such as therioepistemology and different criteria for animal model validation. Also, we will discuss some practical examples to address the 3Rs principles in animal experimentation(replacement, reducing and refinement) during planning, conducting and reporting processes as well as some considerations to choose the most robust and reliable animal model focusing in parasitology research.