Reporting of 3Rs Approaches in Preclinical Animal Experimental Studies—A Nationwide Study

Abstract

The 3Rs aim to refine animal welfare, reduce animal numbers, and replace animal experiments. Investigations disclose that researchers are positive towards 3Rs recommendations from peers. Communication of 3Rs approaches via primary preclinical animal experimental literature may become a fast-forward extension to learn relevant 3Rs approaches if such are reported. This study investigates 3Rs-reporting in peer-reviewed preclinical animal research with at least one author affiliated to a Danish university. Using a systematic search and random sampling, we included 500 studies from 2009 and 2018. Reporting was low and improvement over time limited. A word search for 3R retrieved zero results in 2009 and 3.2% in 2018. Reporting on 3Rs-related sentences increased from 6.4% in 2009 to 18.4% in 2018, “reduction” increased from 2.4% to 8.0%, and “refinement” from 5.2% to 14.4%. Replacement was not reported. Reporting of the methodology was missing. For “reduction”, methodology was mentioned in one study in 2009 and 11 studies in 2018, and for “refinement” in 9 and 21, respectively. Twenty-one studies stated compliance with ARRIVE-guidelines or similar without disclosure of details. Reporting of 3Rs approaches in preclinical publications is currently insufficient to guide researchers. Other strategies, e.g., education, interdisciplinary collaboration, and 3Rs funding initiatives, are needed.

Optimization of Laser-Based Method to Conduct Skin Ablation in Zebrafish and Development of Deep Learning-Based Method for Skin Wound-Size Measurement

“…Fish were allowed to recover for 5 min in the system water before they were placed in their respective experimental tanks with the experimental solution, which was changed every 2 days. The wound area was monitored and measured at the predetermined time points, which were at 5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45, and 50 dpw (days postwound). For imaging, the fish were anesthetized, and the skin wound images were captured using a dissecting microscope from Andonstar (Shenzhen, Guangdong, China).…”

“…Mice have many advantages over other models, including that they share a similar genetic makeup (99%) as humans and the availability of the established mice genetic toolbox that represents human disease models [6]. However, due to economic reasons, like high costs for daily maintenance, as well as for animal welfare issues, the scientific community continuously searches for other alternatives that are able to fit the 3Rs principle to replace, reduce, and refine experimental animal usage [7][8][9][10]. Therefore, it is important to come up with a solution to this problem.…”