WellBeing International WBI Studies Repository 1995 The Three Rs: The Way Forward Michael Balls European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods Alan M. Goldberg Johns Hopkins University Julia H. Fentem European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods Caren L. Broadhead Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments (FRAME) Rex L. Burch See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/acwp_arte Part of the Bioethics and Medical Ethics Commons, Laboratory and Basic Science Research Commons, and the Politics and Social Change Commons Recommended Citation Balls, M., Goldberg, A. M., Fentem, J. H., Broadhead, C. L., Burch, R. L., Festing, M. F., ... & Van Zutphen, B. F. (1995). The three Rs: the way forward: the report and recommendations of ECVAM Workshop 11. Alternatives to laboratory animals: ATLA, 23(6), 838. This material is brought to you for free and open access by WellBeing International. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of the WBI Studies Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Authors Michael Balls, Alan M. Goldberg, Julia H. Fentem, Caren L. Broadhead, Rex L. Burch, Michael F.W. Festing, John M. Frazier, Coenraad F.M. Hendriksen, Margaret Jennings, Margot D.O. van der Kamp, David B. Morton, Andrew N. Rowan, Claire Russell, William M.S. Russell, Horst Spielmann, Martin Stephens, William S. Stokes, Donald W. Straughan, James D. Yager, Joanne Zurlo, and Bert F.M. van Zutphen This article is available at WBI Studies Repository: https://www.wellbeingintlstudiesrepository.org/acwp_arte/58 ATLA 23, 838-866, 1995 838 The Three Rs: The Way Forward , The Report and Recommendations of ECVAM Workshop 11 ,2 Michael Balls; Alan M. Goldberg; Julia H. Fentem," Caren L, Broadhead,5 Rex L. Burch," Michael F.W. Festin!\'7 John M. Frazier,8 Coenraad F.M. Hendriksen; Margaret Jennin~s, 0 Margot D.O. van der Kamp,l1 David B. Morton,'2 Andrew N. Rowan, 3 Claire Russell," William M.S. Russell, I. Horst SpielmannJ 15 Martin L. Stephens,'6 William S. Stokes, 17 Donald W. Straughan, 0 James D. Yager, 18 Joanne Zurlo 4 and Bert F.M. van ZutphenI. "ECVAM, JRC Environment Institute, 21020 Ispra (Va), Italy; 'CAAT, School of Hygiene and Public Health,/ohns Hopkins University, 111 Market PlacelSuite 840, Baltimore, MD 21202-6709, USA; FRAME, Russell & Burch House, 96-98 North Sherwood Street, Nottingham NGJ 4EE, UK; 6Town Hall, Sheringham, NOifolk NR26 8QY, UK; 7MRC Toxicology Unit, Hodgkin Building, University of Leicester, Leicester LEI 9HN, UK; AToxic Hazani!..s Research Unit, ManTech Environmental Technology Inc., Dayton, OR 45431-0009, [tSA; RIVM, Antonie van Leeuwenhoeklaan 9, 3721 MA Billhoven, The Netherlands; °Research f}:nimals Department, RSPCA, The Causeway, Horsham, West Suss~x RH12 IHG, UK; NCA, Yalelaan 17, De Uithof, 3584 CL Utrecht, The Netherlands; I Department of Biomedical ~fiences and Ethics, University of Birmingham Medical School, Birmingham BI52TJ, UK; Tufts Center for Animals and Public ff.licy, School for VeterinalJ' Medicine, 200 Westboro Road, North Grafton, MA 01536, US1i Department of Sociology, University of Reading, Whiteknights.Reading RG6 2AA, UK; I ZEBET, BgW, Diedersdolfer Weg 1, 12277 Berlin, Germany; I Hu"!?ne Society of the United States, 2100 L Street NW, Washi"i/lton, DC 20037, USA; NIEHS, NTP, NIH, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA; 1 Division of Toxicological Sciences, School of Hygiene and Publif Health, Johns Hopkins University, 615 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; Department of Laboratory Animal Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands Preface tance to the biosciences and which reduce, refine or replace the use of laboratory ani­ This is the report of the eleventh of a series mals. One of the first priorities set by of workshops organised by the European Eev AM was the implementation of proce­ Centre for the Validation of Alternative dures which would enable it to become well­ Methods (ECVAM), which was established in informed about the state-of-the-art of 1991 by the European Commission. non-animal test development and validation. ECVAM's main goal, as defined in 1993 by and the potential for the possible incorpora­ its Scientific Advisory Committee, is to pro­ tion of replacement alternative tests into mote the scientific and regulatory acceptance regulatory procedures. It was decided that of alternative methods which are of impor- this would be best achieved by the organisa- Address for correspondence and reprints: Professor Michael Balls, ECVAM, TP ,')80, JRC Environment Institute, 21020 Ispra (Va), Italy I ECVAM _ The Ellropean Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods. 2This document represents the agreed report of the participants as individual scientists. 839 M. Balls et ai. tion of ECVAM workshops on specific topics, project was managed by a committee under at which small groups of invited experts the chairmanship of Sir Peter Medawar, would review the current status of various with William Lane-Petter, Secretary of the types of in vitro tests and their potential Research Defence Society, among its mem­ uses, and make recommendations about the bers. It was international from its outset, best ways forward (1). since Christine Stevens, of the Animal The workshop on The Three Rs - The Welfare Institute (AWl) in the USA, pro­ Way Forward, held in Sheringham, Norfolk, vided financial support and made frequent UK, on 30 May to 3 June 1995, under the co­ visits to UFAW while the study was being chairmanship of Michael Balls (ECVAMI and conducted. Alan M. Goldberg (Johns Hopkins Center for W.M.S. Russell and R.L. Burch were Alternatives to Animal Testing [CAAT], appointed to carry out the work. This led to Baltimore, MD, USAI, had a wider aim. The their book, The Principles of Humane principal objectives of this workshop were to Experimental Techniq'le (2), which provided discuss the current status of the Three Rs, a wealth of information and many remark­ and to make recommendations aimed at able ideas and insights, most of them as rel­ achieving greater acceptance of the concept evant today as they were more than 35 years of humane experimental technique and, in ago. The book has recently been reprinted the interests of both scientific excellence and (31, and copies can be obtained from UFAW.' the highest standards of animal welfare, the It was in this book that Russell and Burch more active implementation of reduction presented the concept of the Three Rs. They alternatives, refinement alternatives and defined replacement as "any scientific replacement alternatives. method employing non-sentient material The invited participants were individuals which may in the history of animal experi­ actively and professionally committed to the mentation replace methods which use con­ Three Rs, and we were privileged to have scious living vertebrates", reduction as a William Russell and Rex Burch, who devel­ means of lowering "the number of animals oped the Three Rs approach in the 1950s, as used to obtain information of a given amount participants in the workshop. and precision", and refinement as any devel­ The opening ceremony was held in opment leading to a "decrease in the inci­ Sheringham Town Hall, where Rex Burch dence or severity of inhumane procedures has practised as a microbiologist since the applied to those animals which have to be early 1970s. Since this was the first time that used". Russell and Burch had attended a scientific Nobody can recall precisely when the conference together for nearly forty years, Three Rs concept arose (4), but it was some­ the proceedingfi were recorded on videotape time between 1955 and 1957. UFAW held a (the VHS tape can be borrowed from symposium on Humane Technique in the ECVAM and a JVC version is available from LaboratolY (51 in 1957, and it was then that CAATI. The rest of the workshop was held at the concept of the Three Rs was first dis­ the Links Country Park Hotel, West Runton. cussed in public. More about the origins of the Three Rs concept can be found in a talk given by Charles Hume in Washington in Introduction October 1959 (61, when he said of The Principles of Humane Experimental The origins of the Three Rs concept Technique: What are now known as the Three Rs of "This deserves to become a classic for all Russell and Burch, replacement, reduction time, and we have great hopes that it will and refinement, have their origins in a pro­ inaugurate a new field of systematic study. posal made in 1954 by Charles Hume, We hope that others will follow up the lead it founder of the Universities Federation for has given, and that a generalised study of Animal Welfare tUFAWI, that UFAW should humane technique, as a systematic compo· undertake a scientific study of humane tech­ nent of the methodology of research, will nique in laboratory animal experiments. The come to be considered essential to the train- 18 Hamilton Close, Softth Mimms, Poilen; Bar, Herts, EN6.'JQD, UK. ECVAM Workshop 11: Three Rs 840 ing of a biologist." under which experiments on animals were allowed and regulated. This led in turn to the What is perhaps the central message (the formation of the Committee for the ,Reform "humanity criterion") of The Principles of of Animal Experimentation (CRAE), which Humane Experimental Techiqlle (2) is had as its principal goal the reform of the spelled out on page 157 of the book: 1876 Act (9). The concept of alternatives was "If we are to use a criterion for choosing also taking hold in the USA. as a result oflhe experiments to perform, the criterion of efforts of the AWl (who distributed Russell humanity is the best we could possibly and Burch's book), United Action for invent." Animals, and the Humane Society of the United States.