An animal rights organisation has partnered with Egerton University to promote use of alternatives or ‘animal models’ in research and training instead of live animals.
The Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW) indicated that the alternatives or animal models are ethical training resources that reduce the demand for live animals needed to deliver the same lessons.
According to ANAW’s Head Veterinarian Dr Mary Ann speaking at Egerton University on Wednesday, some of these alternatives include animal and computer simulators; life-like models; cells and tissue culture also known as “organs on chips”.
“We have partnered with Egerton University to promote our campaign to be applied in various methods of research, training because alternatives provide are authentic, affordable.” Dr Ann said.
According to Prof Njenga Munene, the Deputy Vice Chancellor Egerton University, he commended the use of alternatives saying a lot of animals were lost through training and research.
“There is global concern on animal welfare and people are concerned how we treat them. Use of live animals causes them stress, pain and even death,” Prof Munene said.
Prof Munene meanwhile pointed that, the use of live animals in research and training cannot be eliminated but can be reduced to protect the animals.
“We can use models, tissue culture archive materials and other methods to eliminate use of live animals,” Prof Munene said.
The concept was also welcomed by Prof Charles Muleke, the Dean, Faculty of Medicine Egerton University.
Prof Muleke indicated that, Nairobi, Mt Kenya, Maasai Mara Universities attended the workshop in order to understand the use of alternatives.
“We have professors from Libya, Cairo Egypt and from the United Kingdom and the workshop will help use in understanding deeply the importance of alternatives,” he added.
Meanwhile, Dr Anne pointed that, they mostly targets research, education and training institutions in order to introduce the concept of alternatives to animals in research and training.
Dr Anne pointed that, in 2011, a study was conducted on the Kenyan perspective the use of animals in science education and scientific research.
“The study found that the use of alternatives to animals in research and education was rarely reported. However, 41.0% of the studied institutions used some alternatives like animal cell cultures and computer simulators,” she said.