ANTONIO CONTO

Chemsafe, Colleretto Giacosa (TO), Italy

The story of the possible replacement of traditional toxicology approaches with more integrated and modern methods started many years ago with the declaration of the 3Rs Principle.

In 1959 two Academics, Rex Burch and William Russell, Members of the University Federation of Animal Welfare (USA), published a book that will become, in the following years, a milestone in the animal welfare policy, “The Principles of Human Experimental Technique”. In such a book the two scientists presented a road map addressed to practice an animal experimentation that will take into account both the data quality and the welfare of animals used in testing. Their approach is still known as the 3R principles where 3Rs means:

Replacement: “any scientific method employing non sentient material which may, in the history of experimentation, replace methods which use conscious living vertebrates;

Reduction: “reduction in the number of animals used to obtain information of a given amount and precision”;

Refinement: “simply to reduce to an absolute minimum the amount of stress imposed on ...