ABSTRACT

There is no doubt that scientic research has improved the quality of life and welfare (reducing suffering and increasing life expectancy) in animals and human beings.

However, the use of animals for research has been a source of controversy for years. In the past few years, the application of Russell and Burch’s 3R principles (replace, reduce and rene) (see Chapter 1) has improved the quality of the animal use. However, to imagine scientic research in biology without the use of experimental animals is, at least at the present time, a utopia.