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A recently formed interagency governmental committee approved a new skin test for irritating chemicals that will reduce, but not eliminate, the number of animals used for such testing.
The new test checks products to see if they cause contact dermatitis. Currently contact dermatitis tests use guinea pigs and cost American industry up to $1 billion annually to perform. The new test uses mice and requires only one-third to one-half as many animals.
The test also reduces the level of animal suffering. In the old test, chemicals were repeatedly applied to guinea pigs several times and researchers would then wait for the animals to develop skin irritations. The new mice protocol calls for the application of the chemicals, but after 6 days the mice are killed and their lymph nodes examined for antibodies indicative of contact dermatitis.
William Stokes of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and chair of the interagency committee that gave its approval and passed the test on to the FDA for formal approval, said the new test combines the best of both worlds.
We think it's a win-win situation. These new methods typically use fewer animals, no animals or cause less pain and distress ... but they also incorporate new science and technology to provide more accurate tests that do a better job of protecting public health.
In an odd move, even People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals endorsed the new test.
"We support any new test," said Mary Beth Sweetland, PETA's director of research, investigation and rescue. "Everything is relative - using a mouse lymph node beats blinding an animal for months. A skin sensitivity test can last for any number of hours, weeks or months."
Source:
"U.S. scientists endorse more human lab tests," Maggie Fox, Reuters, Sept. 21, 1998.