Introducing Ethical Evaluation of the use of Animals in Experiments in the near East

Abstract

Turkey and Iran are two Near East countries that are developing ethical regulation systems for animal experiments, following significant developments in this field in neighbouring Europe. In Turkey, legislation was passed between 2004 and 2006 to mandate ethical review of experiments which involve the use of laboratory animals. Today, one central and 73 local ethics committees exist, to evaluate the use of animals and the numbers of animals used, and to consider applications for animal experimentation. In Iran, Animal Ethics Committees (AECs) were established in 2004 in approximately 50 medical universities. The objective of the AECs is to preserve animal welfare and ethics, taking into account Islamic principles, and to be cognisant of world trends for the improvement of laboratory animal welfare. The recent establishment of animal ethical review in the Near East could benefit from experiences in Western countries, in their evolution toward high standards of experimental animal ethics.

Students’ attitudes to animal welfare and rights in Europe and Asia

“…This could be due to the lack of anchorage of concern for animals in the legal system. There is currently no legal protection for research animals, for example, and such animal protection as there is derives largely from the Islamic scriptures (Izmirli et al 2010). These contain many exhortations to treat animals well but do not specifically address some of the greatest concerns of today's activist groups, for example the intensive housing of poultry.…”

Establishing the first institutional animal care and use committee in Egypt

“…In 1956, the International Council for Laboratory Animals Science (ICLAS) defined and established international guiding principles for using animals in biomedical research [6]. It stipulated that each institute involved in animal research should have an ethics committee for monitoring research activities on the animals.…”

ATLA — A Truly International Journal

“…With the coming into effect of the EU Cosmetics Directive, 2 which imposed a marketing ban within the EU of any cosmetics ingredients or finished products that have been tested on animals, the interest of non-EU countries in the use of alternatives has, no doubt, increased considerably. Indeed, the admirable progress which has been made by many 'developing' countries in terms of their attitudes and legislation on the ethical use of animals in experiments has been documented in a number of papers recently published in ATLA (see, for example, Izmirli et al in this current issue, 3 as well as Lee et al, 4 Tréz, 5 and Kong & Qin, 6 in other recent issues). We feel that the information provided by these particular papers is, to a large extent, a two-way street, in that the authors can present to the rest of the world the status of animal experimentation and alternatives in their country (which can often be a complete revelation to 'outsiders'), and, in the other direction, the article can serve to facilitate collaboration between the authors and one or more of our readers in the West, who would undoubtedly have relevant expertise and valuable knowledge to share with members of countries whose Three Rs policies are still in their infancy.…”