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Testing and Three Rs
This section is intended to provide material that is specifically relevant to the use of animals in testing.
Most of the Three Rs topics covered in other sections of this website are also applicable to testing.
However, some Three Rs-related concerns apply specifically to laboratory animals used in
commercially-directed testing, such as in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. These include:
- a legal obligation to use animals in testing to ensure that products are safe - this requires
adherence to regulatory guidelines and may restrict how test procedures can be modified by
animal care committees in response to Three Rs-related concerns;
- an experimental goal of producing a toxic effect in the animal, often with associated pain
and/or distress - causing harm to the animal is integral to the experimental procedure.
- limited access to experimental data produced in a commercial setting (for reasons of
confidentiality) - this may result in duplication of experiments with animals and exclude
useful information from comprehensive assessments of how well animals are functioning as
predictive models for humans.
In Canada, animal care protocols for testing must indicate that the testing has been planned according to
the most current regulatory requirements, using guidelines acceptable to the regulatory agency(ies),
and which meet the requirements of the CCAC policy statement on: ethics of animal investigation (1989).
The planned animal use must not exceed the requirements of the regulatory authorities without
justification for the additional animal use.
For more information on testing and the Three Rs, the following resources may be useful:
CCAC resources
Online resources
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