ABSTRACT
The latter part of the twentieth century and beginning of the twenty-first century represents an age of scientific discovery, knowledge application, globalization, and social awareness that are unlike any other periods in the history of the world. The last 50 years have seen a rapid and continuous growth of the global biomedical research enterprise that includes a worldwide increase in organizations conducting research, teaching, and testing using experimental animals. Bornmann and Mutz (2015) estimated the post–World War II growth rate of global scientific output to be 8%–9% per year, which equates to a doubling of published information every 9 years. This rate of discovery is far greater than the estimated 1% of the eighteenth century and 2%–3% of the period between the two World Wars. As the research enterprise has grown, along with the speed of global communications, so has the awareness of the public with respect to new knowledge of complex biological systems, health care improvements, and oversight of research. Expectations of accountability to the public in areas of biomedical research have grown out of increased access to information, social awareness of the general public, and the lessons of history. Globalization of biomedical research has also triggered a worldwide awareness of ethics, with greater influence from the citizenry and consumers (Degeling and Johnson 2015), who are often shaping regulations designed for oversight of the research enterprise. With respect to laboratory animal welfare, there has been an increase in both the addition and amendment of laws, regulations, and guidelines designed to address public concern, promote the health and welfare of research animals, and ensure consistent practices in facilities engineering, husbandry, veterinary care, and program monitoring. Overall, the biomedical research enterprise is more attentive to the welfare of research animals than ever before. Yet parties on both sides of the discussion regarding the use of animals in research continue to debate whether the regulations and oversight are excessive or insufficient. In response, new regulations and guidelines have emerged, and in other instances, the scientific community has responded through self-imposed regulation (Degeling and Johnson 2015). The challenge is to balance the wide range of expectations facing the research community in the future.
