I’ve gotten a little behind on posting about Altweb’s — the Johns Hopkins University global clearinghouse for information on alternatives to animal testing — endeavors. What has the alternatives community been up to since February? Luckily I’ve come up with a list of articles.
None of these articles are that . . . fascinating . . . in and of themselves. Sorry! (I wouldn’t recommend clicking on any of these links unless you’re really interested in the subject — your eyes may glaze over.)
But I think it’s just fascinating how these articles illustrate all the day-to-day activity about alternatives to animal testing. For example, there’s a bill that would end invasive testing on chimpanzees (yay!), the proceedings of the 6th World Congress on Alternatives to Animal Use (doesn’t that sound lovely?), and some information about how the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validating of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) is looking into in vitro eye tests.
It’s just AMAZING to me that there’s all this stuff out there — it really highlights how much work is going on in finding alternatives to using animals in toxicological experiments. If you know anyone interested in toxicology and animal welfare, this definitely would be the place to direct their attention!
Though overall I’m really surprised so few people know about Altweb in particular and alternative methods in general. Whenever the subject comes up in my day-to-day life and I inform people that there are animal testing alternatives that are scientific and effective, they look at me with shock in their eyes. They have absolutely no idea there’s all this interesting stuff going on in alternative methods. But there is! Check it out:
NEW: Altweb Special Section on Refinement
NEW: 2008 Animal Welfare Enhancement Awards: Call for Proposals
Contact Dermatitis 2008: Blending Science with Best Practice (Montreal, August 28-30) (05/30/2008)
Federal Bill Would End Invasive Testing on Chimpanzees (05/27/2008)
Peer Review Panel Report on Murine Local Lymph Node Assay (LLNA) Now Available (05/21/2008)
Netherlands Centre Alternatives to Animal Use (NCA) May Newsletter (05/14/2008)
Proceedings of the 6th World Congress on Alternatives & Animal Use in the Life Sciences now available on Altweb (05/06/2008)
Persons and Institutions Active in the Field of Alternatives (DB-ALM, ECVAM) Now Accessible to the Public (05/06/2008)
DNT2: Developmental Neurotoxicity Conference Brochure Available for Download (PDF) (04/28/2008)
AWIC Offers Updated Bibliography of Care and Welfare of Dogs (04/28/2008)
NC3Rs Events 2008 Newsletter (04/17/2008)
Go3R.org, a New Knowledge-based Semantic Search Engine (04/09/2008)
Altweb Calendar Updates (04/01/2008)
CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Alternatives Research & Development Foundation 2008 Alternatives Research Grant Program (03/11/2008)
