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European Commission rejects Stop Vivisection Initiative
Today the European Commission rejected the Stop Vivisection Initiative that sought to repeal European Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes and ban animal...
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Child health benefits from studies of infant monkeys – Part 1
Health research with nonhuman primates takes place at many universities and research institutions in the US, among them centers funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). A broad range of...
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Clinical trial success for Cystic Fibrosis gene therapy: built on animal...
This morning the Cystic Fibrosis Gene Therapy Consortium (GTC) announced the results of clinical trial in 140 patients with cystic fibrosis, which demonstrate the potential for gene therapy to slow –...
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USDA publishes 2014 Animal Research Statistics
Congratulations to the USDA/APHIS for getting ahead of the curve and making the US the first country to publish its 2014 animal research statistics. Overall, the number of animals (covered by the...
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Israel provides animal research statistics for 2014
The 2014 statistics from the Israeli National Council for Animal Experimentation show a 13 percent increase in animals used, reports Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper. The 340,330 animals used in...
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Truvada prevents HIV infection in high-risk individuals! A clinical success...
In the past two weeks we’ve learned of a major advance in ongoing efforts to halt the spread of HIV, two separate clinical studies have reported that a daily regimen of a pill called Truvada as a...
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Nobel Prize 2015 – Protecting People against Parasites!
The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to scientists whose research has led to therapies that have saved hundreds of millions of people around the world from parasitic diseases...
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Caveat Emptor
A current USDA case involving a major antibody producer underscores the need for the research community to demonstrate its commitment to high standards of animal welfare. On August 18-20, 2015, Santa...
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Animal Testing. Is it really a polarised debate?
I was recently contacted by a student who had an assignment to report both sides of a contentious issue, and she’d chosen animal research. To her, there were two sides to the debate – a simple yes or...
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PR, ethics, and the science of head transplants
There has been a lot of media coverage on the recent claims by Dr. Sergio Canavero that he has successfully transplanted the head of a monkey on to a donor body of another monkey. This story,...
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HPV vaccines and cervical cancer – a success in animals is a success for humans
A recent article in the journal Pediatrics reported that vaccination against human papilloma virus (HPV) resulted in a 64% reduction in infections in girls aged 14-19 (1). The vaccine, Gardasil, came...
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Over 200 institutions publish online animal research position statements
It’s a good start but there’s plenty more still to be done, and it is being done. Yesterday the University of Edinburgh launched their excellent new animal research resource...
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How zebrafish help advance cancer research
Do sharks get cancer? Despite the widely touted myth that sharks do not develop cancer, fish of all species do occasionally develop spontaneous tumours. This is of course also true for the most common...
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Two Years On: The Concordat on Openness on Animal Research
In May 2014, Understanding Animal Research brought seventy-two organizations together to sign the Concordat on Openness on Animal Research in the UK, committing signatories to improving their...
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When are rats, mice, birds and fish protected by US federal laws?
There is sometimes confusion about how US law protects rats, mice and non-mammalian vertebrates such as birds and fish. Much of this confusion is rooted in the fact that the US Animal Welfare Act (AWA)...
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We mightn’t like it, but there are ethical reasons to use animals in medical...
Trichur Vidyasagar, University of Melbourne The media regularly report impressive medical advances. However, in most cases, there is a reluctance by scientists, the universities, or research...
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Novo Nordisk demonstrate what good openness looks like
Openness has been a buzz word in science policy over the past five years, particularly for animal research. Today, Speaking of Research reached 250 animal research statements on our list of public...
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USDA publishes 2015 Animal Research Statistics
Congratulations to the USDA/APHIS for getting ahead of the curve for a second time and making the US the first country to publish its 2015 animal research statistics. Overall, the number of animals...
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Why we haven’t cured the common cold – a response to PETA’s science advisor,...
For a previous post that also debunks comments made by PETA, read our article, “Biology, History and Maths: A lesson in debunking PETA’s nonsense”. The United Kingdom recently released their annual...
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The Netherlands publishes 2015 animal research statistics
There were 479,580 procedures on animals in the Netherlands for scientific purposes in 2015, down almost 15% from the previous year. This was according to the latest report by the Food and Consumer...
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