National Workshop “Ethics & Welfare concerns in Research for Human & Animal Health”

COHEART & Dept. of Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology jointly organized National workshop on “Ethics and welfare concerns in research for human and animal health” at Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Pookode, Wayanad, Kerala on 15.09.17.

Experts: The theme of the workshop is traversing the ethical and welfare concerns in research for betterment of human and animal health. The session commenced with a talk on Ethics in public health research by Dr. Vijaya Hegade, Professor and Head, Dept. of Public Health Dentistry, AJ Institute of Dental Sciences, Mangalore. Dr. S. G. Ramachandra, Chief Research Scientist, Central Animal Facility, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru spoke on the emerging issues and practice of Ethics and welfare in animal experimentation. The compendium was released by Dean, Prof. (Dr.) K. Vijayakumar. This was followed by a session on Animal Welfare through Replacement- Reduction and Refinement in Techniques in Animal Experiments by Dr. N. Prakash,  Professor and Head, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Veterinary College, Hebbal, Bengaluru. Post lunch, Dr. Manilal Valliyatte Chief Executive Officer, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals enlightened the participants on Scientific and legal reasons for adopting alternatives to experiments on animals and Mr. A.G. Babu, CPCSEA Socially aware, Nominee discussed on Genesis and development of Animal Ethics.

The workshop recommended the necessity of 3 R s to be included in the animal experimentation.  This includes replacement, refinement and reduction. Replacement refers to method that avoids using animals. It includes absolute replacements with inanimate systems as well as relative replacements. Refinement refers to modifications of husbandry or experimental procedures to enhance the animal well-being and minimize or eliminate pain and distress. Reduction includes strategies for obtaining comparable levels of information or data from the use of fewer animals or from maximizing the information obtained from any given number of animals so that fewer animals are needed to acquire for the experimentation. The workshop also recommended use of Simulation techniques for physiological and pharmacological research in human and animal medicine. The workshop also enlightened about the salient points of CPCSEA 2017 guidelines and recommended to explore the possibility to launch a Certificate course on Animal welfare and Bioethics, for capacity building of young researchers. The workshop was helpful for researchers and academicians to review on the existing rules and regulations related to experiments in laboratory animals and clinical trials.  

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