Basic principles of experimental animals welfare protection

Ethical considerations of animal protection and welfare require that the use of experimental animals is limited as much as possible. Animal experiments should only be performed when no alternative is available and when the benefit of the experiment outweighs the suffering of the animal. This review paper describes the basic principles for the ethical use of experimental animals. These are: "Three Rs rule" (replacement, reduction and refinement), "five freedoms" for animals and "Solna principles". "Replacement" means the substitution for conscious living higher animals of insentient material. "Reduction" means reduction in the numbers of animals used to obtain information of a given amount and precision. "Refinement" means any decrease in the incidence or severity of inhumane procedures applied to those animals which still have to be used. The "five freedoms" are: freedom from hunger and thirst, freedom from adverse environmental impacts, freedom from disease and injury, freedom to exhibit normal behavior and freedom from adverse mental states. "Solna principles" state that tests for regulatory purposes need to reflect the following: biological Relevance (meaningfulness and usefulness of a test for a particular purpose), Reliability (reproducibility of results within and between laboratories), and Regulatory acceptability (suitability of a test for risk assessment purposes (human health /environment)