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The principle of the 3Rs between aspiration and reality

The Principle of the 3Rs is widely recognised as the methodological and ethical backbone of contemporary animal research. Different authors also stress the reciprocal links among the 3Rs, and how these often complement and reinforce each other. We very much agree with this point, but in this contrib...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Vitale, Augusto, Ricceri, Laura
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9411934/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36035462
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2022.914939
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author Vitale, Augusto
Ricceri, Laura
author_facet Vitale, Augusto
Ricceri, Laura
author_sort Vitale, Augusto
collection PubMed
description The Principle of the 3Rs is widely recognised as the methodological and ethical backbone of contemporary animal research. Different authors also stress the reciprocal links among the 3Rs, and how these often complement and reinforce each other. We very much agree with this point, but in this contribution we would like to raise some problems related to the application of the “3Rs”. There is an obvious link among “Replacement, “Reduction” and “Refinement”, but it is worth to notice also that each “R” has its own conceptual characteristics, as well as its own level of applicability. For example, a realistic “methodological inertia” has to be expected more in the case of “Replacement” than in the case of “Refinement”. This also leads to a second order of issues, and here we will offer our experience as projects evaluators. The “3Rs” differ also in the possibility to verify how are applied by the proponents of research protocols involving the use of animal models. Sometimes it appears that the application of the Principle still resolves itself in the use of formulaic sentences, from which it is difficult to really understand the reality of the laboratory decisional and procedural processes. However, the demanding characteristics of the “3Rs” can vary greatly, and this is something that has to be considered. We propose that a network, or a virtual platform, of evaluators could help both researchers and evaluators for a more satisfactory understanding and pragmatic application of the Principle of the 3Rs.
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spelling pubmed-94119342022-08-27 The principle of the 3Rs between aspiration and reality Vitale, Augusto Ricceri, Laura Front Physiol Physiology The Principle of the 3Rs is widely recognised as the methodological and ethical backbone of contemporary animal research. Different authors also stress the reciprocal links among the 3Rs, and how these often complement and reinforce each other. We very much agree with this point, but in this contribution we would like to raise some problems related to the application of the “3Rs”. There is an obvious link among “Replacement, “Reduction” and “Refinement”, but it is worth to notice also that each “R” has its own conceptual characteristics, as well as its own level of applicability. For example, a realistic “methodological inertia” has to be expected more in the case of “Replacement” than in the case of “Refinement”. This also leads to a second order of issues, and here we will offer our experience as projects evaluators. The “3Rs” differ also in the possibility to verify how are applied by the proponents of research protocols involving the use of animal models. Sometimes it appears that the application of the Principle still resolves itself in the use of formulaic sentences, from which it is difficult to really understand the reality of the laboratory decisional and procedural processes. However, the demanding characteristics of the “3Rs” can vary greatly, and this is something that has to be considered. We propose that a network, or a virtual platform, of evaluators could help both researchers and evaluators for a more satisfactory understanding and pragmatic application of the Principle of the 3Rs. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-08-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9411934/ /pubmed/36035462 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2022.914939 Text en Copyright © 2022 Vitale and Ricceri. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Physiology
Vitale, Augusto
Ricceri, Laura
The principle of the 3Rs between aspiration and reality
title The principle of the 3Rs between aspiration and reality
title_full The principle of the 3Rs between aspiration and reality
title_fullStr The principle of the 3Rs between aspiration and reality
title_full_unstemmed The principle of the 3Rs between aspiration and reality
title_short The principle of the 3Rs between aspiration and reality
title_sort principle of the 3rs between aspiration and reality
topic Physiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9411934/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36035462
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2022.914939
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