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Roger Adan is a Professor at Translational Neuroscience at the ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� Medical Centre Utrecht. We asked him about his view on the transition to animal-free innovations.

“Decades ago, the Rudolf Magnus institute had stables and labs, where you could get any laboratory animals you needed for your research. Times have changed. Regulations have become stricter, we started applying the 3Rs, Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement, and we have become more transparent and accountable about animal experiments.

3Rs

Since then, we have been working on the 3Rs in many ways. We did lots of work on refining techniques, cage enrichment, and lean ways of breeding lab animals. We changed our ways of teaching. The way we operate on laboratory animals is now more similar to the way humans are operated.

Eating disorders

I do appreciate the ideas behind the Transition Project to animal-free Innovations, but I am wondering whether they are going to lead to a further decrease in animals used for science. In my field, neuroscience, and specifically eating disorders, finding new replacing techniques that can answer the questions we have seems impossible, as we need to observe animal behavior and study its physiology. We need to see how a living being reacts. But we do use animal-free methods like cell cultures to answer specific sub-questions.

It seems like we have come to a point where the whole process of getting approval for animal experiments is so time-consuming that it hampers research.

Good research

To me it seems like we have come to a point where the whole process of getting approval is so time consuming that it hampers research. I would like to give an example. We recently tested a new drug that we thought could be repurposed to treat Anorexia Nervosa. We discovered the drug had a species-specific profile: it was active in humans and mice, but not in rats. Although we had allowances to run both the model in both rats and mice, we had forgotten to mention drug treatment in mice. We now lose months because we need CCD approval to test the drug in mice, whereas the burden-benefit assessment is similar as in rats.

People who care

We do animal experiments for good reasons. The research question determines the model, which can be an animal model. Each project has its own weighing process of harms and benefits, done by an Animal Ethics Committee. Everything we do is monitored by the Animal Welfare Body. We really care for the animals we work with, and so do all the people I know who work with laboratory animals. The animal caretakers are people who care for animals. That is why they have chosen this profession. One can trust they will intervene when animals suffer. We create a culture in which anyone can share any doubts or worries. I do hope that people will start seeing that side as well.”