Centre of Toxicology and Health Safety

3R Centre

The 3Rs (Refinement, Reduction, Replacement) represent a guiding principle of the modern and humane approach to animal experimentation. This concept, first published in 1959 by Professors W. Russell and R. Burch in their book “Principles of Humane Experimental Techniques”, has become an integral part of the scientific, ethical and legislative requirements for animal experimentation in the EU.

REFINEMENT means modification of all procedures related to animal experimentation aimimg to minimize pain, stress and suffering.
REDUCTION includes the use of as few animals as possible while maintaining the statistical significance of the experiment, utilization of shared negative controls for multiple experiments, or attempts to obtain the maximum amount of information from a single experimental animal.
REPLACEMENT stands for the substitution of animal experiments by other alternative methods that are capable of achieving equivalent or even better results.

Alternative methods include the following techniques:

- in vitro (cell and tissue cultures, 3D reconstructed human tissue models)
- ex vivo (isolated animal tissues and organs that represent waste from slaughterhouses, or human tissues from surgery)
- in silico (computer simulations, databases, QSAR – Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship, mathematical models)
- in chemico (simulation of biological processes in chemical reactions)

The 3R Centre Czech Republic, based at the National Institute of Public Health, is a voluntary association of specialists in biomedical research who contribute to the advancement of medicine and improvement of human and animal health by means of the study of animal models. It is open to experts from all academic and professional levels, from breeders, animal facility managers and technicians, to toxicologists, veterinarians, physicians, pharmacists and other scientific professionals and students.

The aim of the 3R Centre is to act as an information network in the field of alternative methods to animal experiments and to engage in the validation, dissemination and implementation of new progressive methods with the aim of replacing animal-based experiments with non-animal tests in the future.

Main activities of the 3R Centre:

Sharing information on the 3R principles with the general public (mass media)
Advice on the implementation of alternatives in current practice (methodological and practical guidance)
Information on how to apply the 3R principles to improve the welfare of experimental animals
Dissemination of knowledge during undergraduate and postgraduate education (university students)
Scientific support for responsible authorities and legislation (approval of animal experimentation projects, comments on guidelines)
Participation in validation studies in the framework of EU-NETVAL (cooperation with the European Centre for Validation of Alternative Methods ECVAM)
Support for scientific development and implementation of new alternative methods (publications, documents, standard operating procedures)
Ethical outreach to industry and toxicological testing facilities (guidelines)
Development of promising new alternative methods (e.g. SENS-IS and GARD for in vitro sensitisation testing, tests for identification of endocrine disruption, respiratory toxicity, developmental toxicity, neurotoxicity, etc.)

The activities of the 3R Centre were supported by the ERDF/ESF project “International competitiveness of NIPH in research, development and education in alternative toxicological methods” (No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000860).

History of the 3Rs principle: