New test will save 200,000 rabbits from research lab

Two hundred thousand rabbits a year could be spared an untimely death, thanks to new methods of testing drugs, the European Commission announced yesterday.

Two hundred thousand rabbits a year could be spared an untimely death, thanks to new methods of testing drugs, the European Commission announced yesterday.

Scientists have found a way of using human blood cells instead of rabbits in six tests to detect potential fever-causing agents, known as pyrogens, in drugs.

The animal-friendly test has been developed by an EU-backed research team after 50 years of using rabbits in the only suitable check for the presence of pyrogens.

As well as saving the lives of up to 200,000 rabbits a year, the replacement test is quicker, more accurate and more effective, Philippe Busquin, the EU research commissioner, said. "The use of animals to test drugs is unfortunately necessary to safeguard human health" he said.

"But we can reduce, replace and refine animal testing with EU-sponsored research leading the way at world level."

In the case of the rabbit pyrogen test, the only possible alternative testing until now was based on the coagulation of blood from the horse- shoe crab. But, fortunately for horseshoe crabs, the results were not considered relevant enough to humans, so the burden of research has continued to fall on rabbits.

Now the six human cell-based tests have won the animals a reprieve, and the Commission has promised to continue supporting initiatives to "reduce, replace or refine" animal experimentation.