Every year, 2.8 million animals are used in 2,899 animal experiments in Germany (AnimalTestInfo, mean value from 2017–2019). For some time now, animal testing has been viewed critically from a social and moral perspective (infliction of suffering on and instrumentalization of animals), but has also been criticized scientifically in some cases (transferability and quality of research). The topic is therefore, like animal welfare - and increasingly also animal rights - generally a socially controversial issue, which is particularly important in human, veterinary and dental medicine as well as in the natural sciences, as this is where animal experiments are ultimately carried out. However, animal ethics as an established branch of philosophical ethics also expresses itself very critically on this topic from time to time, triggered by Peter Singer’s standard work Animal Liberation, among others. Animal welfare and animal experimentation are also topics of (medical) research ethics; as a result, these topics are also dealt with intensively in the humanities.
Despite the presence of these topics in medicine and in the natural sciences and humanities, comparatively little attention is paid to alternative methods to animal experiments, especially in teaching materials — even though skills in alternative methods have become an integral part of the training of all those who wish to work experimentally with animals. In Lower Saxony alone, this applies to more than half (58%) of colleges and universities. In particular, there is often a lack of connection between the scientific and technical principles of alternative methods and ethical reflection and consideration.
The University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover (TiHo, AG Hiebl) and the Hannover Medical School (MHH, AG Mertz) are therefore using this joint project to address an OER collection on the topic of “Animal welfare and ethics”, with an initial focus on the aforementioned alternative methods to animal testing. ,
The expertise of the two applicant working groups will be combined in order to provide barrier-free access to high-quality OER materials for the increasing demand for information and teaching on the subject of animal welfare in the laboratory animal sector. The architecture of the collection is to be set up in such a way that it can be expanded to include other aspects of animal welfare, e.g. farm animals or animals kept privately, especially as many ethical issues also arise in these areas. Other topics, such as “Animal welfare and the economy” or “Animal welfare and politics”, could also be added.
Community building
To ensure that the OER are technically correct, a two-stage peer review process will be introduced. In the first stage, the OER content will be reviewed by a specialist scientist from the Virtual TiHo Centre for Alternative and Complementary Methods to Animal Experiments (VZET) and by a scientist from the German Society for Cellular Biotechnology (DGZBT); the ethical content will be reviewed by Dr. Gerald Neitzke, a scientist from the Academy of Ethics in Medicine (AEM) with ethics expertise. Gerald Neitzke, a scientist from the Academy for Ethics in Medicine (AEM) with knowledge of ethics didactics. A final evaluation by students takes place at the TiHo as part of the courses for the acquisition of expertise in laboratory animal science in accordance with §16 of the Animal Welfare Experimental Animal Ordinance. These courses are accredited by the professional association (GV-SOLAS) and are structured as blended learning courses in a flipped classroom format. Each year, 186–200 participants take part in the courses.
People involved in the project
University of Veterinary Medicine
- Prof. Dr. Bernhard Hiebl
- Christian Nordmann
- Christian Gruber
- Elias Warzecha
- Miriam Kanwischer
Medical school
- Dr. Marcel Mertz
- Ines Sophie Pietschmann, m. mel.
- Felicitas Selter, PhD
- Dr. Hannes Kahrass
- Sarah Strathmann
This article by Bernhard Hiebl and Marcel Mertz is — unless otherwise indicated — licensed under CC BY (4.0)