The 3 R’s of Lab Animal Welfare

If you work around lab animals, you have likely already heard of the 3 R’s. They are a very basic framework for improving the welfare of the animals used in research, and for finding alternatives to animals in research. How can we make the 3 R’s a reality instead of just a concept? Truthfully, nobody loves having to test on animals, but, as of right now, it is a necessary part for getting a product from the pre-clinical phase to the clinical phase of research. With many drugs and devices, we can’t test on humans until it’s been tested in another living system first.

What Are The 3 R’s?

Before we get into how to implement them, let’s first understand what the 3 R’s actually are. This may be a refresher for you, or it may be something new to learn.

1. Replace: The end goal is to avoid the use of animals in research. With advancements in technology and other tools, we can develop alternative models to answering important research questions.

2. Reduce: By designing robust yet efficient experiments, we can minimize the number of animals used while maintaining reproducibility.

3. Refine: Animal welfare affects research outcomes. By minimizing pain and distress in research animals, we can ensure that individual behavior, physiology, and immunology do not confound the experimental results.

Strategies to Implement the 3 R’s:

1. Replacement

   1. Support research and innovation. There are organizations that fund projects related to creating and validating non-animal methods for research. As a member of the general public, you can donate to these organizations so they can provide more support to these projects. As a researcher, take advantage of grants that will fund your research on non-animal models.

   2. While I personally believe all animals feel pain, there are some organisms that are considered incapable of experiencing suffering. Many people believe that invertebrates, such as fruit flies and nematode worms, cannot experience suffering on the same level as other animals. Replacing vertebrate models with invertebrate models can be a way to begin a partial replacement of animals in research.

   2. Reduction

   1. With advancements in imaging and other technologies, we can analyze devices across time without having to cull cohorts of animals at specific time points to understand what they are doing to the body. We can instead use a single cohort of animals in studies that do not require histopathology and biomechanics testing at different time points.

      2. Maximizing the use of animals can help us reduce the need for more animals. We can use the same animals for multiple different research questions. It is important to recognize that maximizing the use of an animal can increase their suffering depending on what is being studied. People can do a behavioral study on an animal that is also being used for a biomedical study and this likely won’t affect welfare. An animal that has already been used and necropsied on one study may be used for a cadaveric study later on, which does not increase suffering. For surgical studies, institutional animal care and use committees won’t allow multiple survival surgeries unless there is a strong justification. Instead, what people may do is use more than one treatment in the same animal during the same surgery, but in different areas of the body so they can compare.

   3. Refinement

   1. Coming up with better housing design and husbandry practices will help ease any suffering an animal may experience outside of the study. Making sure that their environment allows them to perform species-specific behavior is a great way to increase their welfare.

      2. Within experiments, we can continually review the effectiveness of our sedation protocols to ensure animals aren’t feeling pain during or after procedures. For procedures they do not need to be sedated for, we can train them to willingly participate in order to reduce the stress of handling and restraint.

Special Tools and Considerations:

1. Enrichment: There are a few companies that come up with enrichment devices for lab animals. Some even offer tips for DIY enrichment. By trying out new objects for animals to hide in or play with, we can increase the complexity of their environment, which will reduce boredom and stress.

2. Behavior Programs: Many lab animal organizations are beginning to implement behavior programs with behavior-specific staff. These people can continually evaluate welfare, help train animals for study procedures, and come up with solutions for curbing problematic behavior. These people play an important role in ensuring animals have a more comfortable life in the lab.

While completely eliminating animals from research is still a long way off, we continue to make changes to improve lab animal welfare. Using the 3 R’s framework effectively, we can make a difference in these animals’ lives and increase the quality of our research outcomes.

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