Reducing the Use of Laboratory Animals in Biomedical Research: Problems and Possible Solutions The Report and Recommendations of ECVAM Workshop 29

Michael F.W. Festing, Vera Baumans, Robert D. Combes, Marlies Halder, Coenraad F.M. Hendriksen, Bryan R. Howard, David P. Lovell, Graham J. Moore, Philip Overend and Marie S. Wilson

This is the report of the twenty-ninth of a series of workshops organised by the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM). The workshop on Reducing the Use of Laboratory Animals in Biomedical Research: Problems and Possible Solutions was held in Southwell, UK, on 12–15 January 1998, under the chairmanship of Michael Festing (MRC Toxicology Unit, Leicester, UK). The participants, who all attended as individuals, not as representatives of their respective organisations, were very experienced in the use of animals in biomedical research, having a strong commitment to high quality research and the ethical use of animals where such use cannot be avoided. The aims of the workshop were to find ways of reducing the number of animals used in biomedical research without reducing research output, and to make recommendations for practical ways in which this might be achieved.