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Animal experimentation explained

Animal experimentation: are we allowed to do that? In this thematic portal, researchers of the Swiss Laboratory Animal Science Association give answers to frequently asked questions.more

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  • Benefits
    • Why?
    • Improving therapies
    • Purpose of research
    • Veterinary medicine
    • Drug development
  • Alternative methods
    • Costs
    • Use
    • Reliability
  • Relevance
    • Transferability
    • Side-effects of medicine
    • Security
    • Success stories
  • Research with primates
    • Distressing experiments
    • Interdiction
  1. Homepage
  2. Alternative methods

Methods without the use of animal testing

Animal experiments are not required for all scientific investigations. This is welcome news for scientists – after all, the use of animals can push them into an ethical dilemma, is expensive and complicated. The choice is obvious whenever the same scientific answers can be found without the use of animals.

  • banknote bank

    Are experimental methods that do not require live animals less expensive?

    Tissue or cell culture analyses are often less expensive.

    Image: C. Ritz
  • Multiphoton fluorescence image of HeLa cells stained with the actin binding toxin phalloidin (red), microtubules (cyan) and cell nuclei (blue)

    There is a wide range of alternative methods intended to replace animal testing. Why are they not used more often by researchers?

    No animal experiment may be conducted if an alternative method is available and suitable.

    Image: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
  • Anatomie3

    Are test methods without the use of animals more reliable as far as transferability to human beings is concerned?

    No, because cell and tissue cultures always only facilitate the investigation of partial aspects of the action of a medicine or a disease process.

    Image: O. Cafiero

Swiss Laboratory Animal Science Association (SGV)
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Novartis
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4056 Basel
Switzerland

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