Are the Lives of Animals Well-spent in Laboratory Science Research? A Study of Orthopaedic Animal Studies in Turkey.

CONCLUSION: In the 243 theses and national congress presentations, 9412 animals were euthanized. Based on the low percentage of papers using animals that were euthanized and the very low proportion of studies published in higher-Impact Factor journals or garnering more than a single citation, in aggregate, little seems to have been gained from the loss of animal life. Future studies should try to replicate or refute our results in other countries. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Orthopaedic researchers should try to reduce their use of unnecessary animal studies, for example, by reporting on the use of the "3Rs" (replacement, reduction, and refinement) in the development of an animal study design, as well as through following universal guidelines so that a study might have a clinical impact. Researchers should not conduct an animal study until they are convinced that the expected results are quite likely to deliver substantial benefit to people or to advance science in a meaningful way; although this seems intuitive, our results suggest that this may not be taking place. Ethics committees in Turkey should consider more detailed questioning before approving animal studies. If our results are replicated elsewhere, then a broader look at how these approvals are conducted should be performed. PMID: 32467410 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research - Category: Orthopaedics Authors: Tags: Clin Orthop Relat Res Source Type: research