Abstract
Animal experimentation is commonly practiced in scientific research worldwide. However, there are no globally accepted standards for regulating the ethical boundaries and accepted practices for animal experimentation. Large differences exist between countries. A report suggested that some researchers, especially from countries with more stringent animal experimentation regulations, may be relocating experimental research to countries with less stringent regulations. We followed a systematic literature review approach to identity publications and determine whether there is an increasing trend in expatriation of non-human primate experimentation by researchers based in Switzerland. We used the Projects People Publications database, which contains projects funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, to identify researchers conducting experiments using non-human primates. This list of names, together with terms referring to non-human primates were used to search the Web of Science. Publications without an author affiliated to a Swiss institution, no living or only with free non-human primates, and non-original research were excluded. For each publication, we recorded the place of experimentation, funding source, number of animals, species and the statement of ethical approval. We retained 120 publications, involving more than 2,429 non-human primates. Macaca mulatta and Macaca fascicularis were the most common species. We could not confirm an increasing trend in expatriation of non-human primate experimentation outside of Switzerland. Over time, publications appeared to report the ethical approval number more consistently. These results should be interpreted with caution because the sample included only studies that were: 1) published and 2) reported in the Web of Science. Consequently, studies with insignificant results may have been excluded because these studies are rarely published, and studies of poor quality may have been excluded because they are often published in lower quality journals, not indexed by the Web of Science.
Highlights
Animal experimentation is a well-established method that is used worldwide in many areas of biomedical research
Researcher Selection To identify researchers based in Switzerland engaged in animal experimentation, we used the Projects People Publications (P3) database of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).[40]
We found no evidence to support the hypothesis that researchers based in Switzerland have increased the
Summary
Animal experimentation is a well-established method that is used worldwide in many areas of biomedical research. Ethical issues around animal experimentation have generated intense debate in the scientific community and society, as scientific knowledge and changing societal norms have influenced the perception of animal experimentation. While during the 20th century there was a sharp increase in the number of animals used in scientific research, there was an increased recognition of animals as sentient beings and a continued debate on the moral implications of animal experimentation.[4,12] This led to the development of laboratory animal science, the recognition of the importance of animal welfare, the development of the Three Rs Principles (Reduce, Refine, Replace)[44] and to a progressive demand for more transparency, stricter regulations or bans on certain types of experiments.[13,21,22,28] More recently, several journals adopted frameworks for better reporting of animal experiments, such as the «Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) Guidelines»,19,32 or the «Planning Research and Experimental Procedures on Animals: Recommendations for Excellence (PREPARE)».30,38. While during the 20th century there was a sharp increase in the number of animals used in scientific research, there was an increased recognition of animals as sentient beings and a continued debate on the moral implications of animal experimentation.[4,12] This led to the development of laboratory animal science, the recognition of the importance of animal welfare, the development of the Three Rs Principles (Reduce, Refine, Replace)[44] and to a progressive demand for more transparency, stricter regulations or bans on certain types of experiments.[13,21,22,28] More recently, several journals adopted frameworks for better reporting of animal experiments, such as the «Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) Guidelines»,19,32 or the «Planning Research and Experimental Procedures on Animals: Recommendations for Excellence (PREPARE)».30,38 Platforms for the preregistration of animal experiments such as «Preclinicaltrials. eu» 29 have been established and statements, such as the «Basel Declaration», were endorsed by researchers.[26]
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