Alternative Methods Databases: Internet Resources That Are More Than Links to Other Sites

by
Michael Kreger
Animal Welfare Information Center, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, Maryland 20705 USA

Contents

• Alternatives to Skin Irritation Testing in Animals
• Altweb
• Animal Welfare Information Center (AWIC)
• AVAR Alternatives in Education Database
• Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT)
• Compilation of Literature on the Assessment of Animal Welfare and Animal Distress
• ECVAM : The European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods
  
• Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments (FRAME)
• Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)
• Interagency Coordinating Committee for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM)
• The Norwegian Reference Centre for Laboratory Animal Science & Alternatives
• NORINA (A Norwegian Inventory of Alternatives)
• Information on Alternatives Databases
• University of California Center for Animal Alternatives

There are many web sites that briefly mention alternatives as part of the scope of laboratory animal care.  Few, however, are devoted exclusively to the alternatives concept.  In the United States, university animal care and use homepages often contain the institution’s animal care protocol form with its alternatives narrative requirement, but those sites usually include links to outside sites for information on how to perform a database search and other information about alternatives.  For the researcher, educator, or student in search of alternatives information, wandering from site to site for the best full-text information can be a challenge.  The alphabetized list of web sites that follows emphasizes alternatives and the sites provide unique information developed by the host institution.  This is certainly not an exhaustive guide as new sites become available and areas of emphasis may change.  Table 1 compares the contents of original material found on the web sites listed.  The list is current through April 12, 2000.

[Editor’s Note: The U.S. Department of Agriculture does not promote any private web sites, and includes them here only for informational purposes.]

Alternatives to Skin Irritation Testing in Animals
Jane Huggins, Ph.D.
Toxicology Consulting Services
56-11 Hunter’s Glen Dr.
Plainsboro, NJ  08536  USA
phone: (609) 716-0860, fax: (609) 716-8030
e-mail: webmaster@invitroderm.com
WWW: http://www.invitroderm.com

This not-for-profit web site has been developed to display information about alternatives to skin irritation testing in animals.  The purpose of the site is primarily educational.  It contains over 250 abstracts about this topic from peer-reviewed scientific journals.  There is a Special Collections section with bibliographies about specific techniques such as EpiDerm, QSAR, and Isolated Perfused Porcine Skin Flap.  The site also contains a thumbnailed photo gallery that illustrates the techniques discussed in the abstracts.  There is also a section that answers typical questions from students.  Nothing has been published here without the permission of the publisher or author.

Altweb
Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT)
111 Market Place, Suite 840
Baltimore, MD 21202-6709  USA
phone: (410) 223-1612, fax: (410) 223-1603
e-mail: caat@jhsph.edu
WWW: http://caat.jhsph.edu

A very extensive site for news, information, discussion, and resources from the field of alternatives to animal testing.  This site is a collaborative effort funded by the Alternatives Research & Development Foundation, the Doerenkamp-Zbinden Foundation, the Humane Society of the United States, the Office for Protection from Research Risks at the National Institutes of Health, and the Procter & Gamble Company.  It is being developed by the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) at Johns Hopkins University, in collaboration with the Altweb Project Team  to serve academic, industrial and government scientists, educators, the media, and the general public.  The team includes 14 national and international organizations including animal protection, animal research, Federal, academic, and nonprofit institutions.

One of the benefits of this site is the amount of full-text articles, conference proceedings, and current news and information.  The General Information page contains information on the definition and history of alternatives, alternative fact sheets, a glossary, public meetings, related links, and a list of publications available in full-text from the site such as The Principles of Humane Experimental Techniques.  “Science and Regulation” includes breaking news such as validation of a new alternative methods, regulations, grants and awards, an alternative procedure search, meetings calendar, other publications, and links to databases and web sites.  “Educational Resources” is under construction, but contains a list of related educational links and will soon have software and computer resources, curriculum guides, and advice from educational specialists.  Some of the publications on this site include conference proceedings and technical reports hosted by CAAT such as TestSmart - A Humane and Efficient Approach to SIDS Data and Alternatives in Monoclonal Antibody Production, ALTEX (Alternative to Animal Experiments) and other journal abstracts, and links to alternative methods reports such as those from ECVAM (European Council for the Validation of Alternative Methods).

Animal Welfare Information Center (AWIC)
National Agricultural Library
10301 Baltimore Avenue
Beltsville, MD  20705  USA
phone: (301) 504-6212, fax: (301) 504-7125
Contact us: http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/contact.php
WWW: http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic

AWIC was established in 1985 as part of an amendment to the Animal Welfare Act.  This amendment, The Improved Standards for Laboratory Animals Act (Public Law 99-198) asks researchers who do biomedical research using animals to try to reduce pain and distress that animals experience in the laboratory.  To help researchers determine if alternative methods are available, the amendment established AWIC as an information service at the National Agricultural Library. AWIC's mission is to provide training to researchers who use animals about more humane animal care and use and provide information for improving methods of animal experimentation that can reduce or replace animal use or minimize pain or distress to animals.

The web site contains many AWIC-produced materials as well as links to related non-AWIC sites.  Full-text issues of the Animal Welfare Information Center Bulletin contain articles on alternatives, information about grants, legislation, and new publications.  Unlike the hardcopy version of the Bulletin, the web version contains links to authors, organizations mentioned in announcements, and important documents.  The site also contains information and registration materials for the AWIC workshop Meeting the Information Requirements of the Animal Welfare Act, full-text publications such as over 60 bibliographies and resource guides ranging from Anesthesia in Laboratory Animals to Information Resources for Environmental Enrichment in Laboratory Animals, and articles on the alternatives requirement and searching written by AWIC staff.  Some of the legislative documents relating to the Animal Welfare Act can be found only on this site.  Links are provided to other Federal legislation and international regulations  as well as to databases and organizations useful in searching for alternatives.  The site contains a search engine.

AVAR Alternatives in Education Database
Nedim C. Buyukmihci, VMD
The Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights
PO Box 208
Davis, CA 95617-0208 USA
phone: (916) 752-6037
e-mail: ncbuyukmihci@ucdavis.edu
WWW: http://www.avar.org

AVAR (the Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights) maintains a database of audiovisual and text materials, computer programs, simulators, models, and other alternatives to the use of animals in education.  Topics range from alternatives to high school dissection to training in microvascular surgery.  Descriptions, ordering information, and images of the products are included.  The database is not searchable on the Web, but is a free downloadable software program.

Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT)
Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT)
111 Market Place, Suite 840
Baltimore, MD 21202-6709, USA
phone: (410) 223-1693, fax: (410) 223-1603
e-mail: caat@jhsph.edu
WWW: http://caat.jhsph.edu/

CAAT was founded in 1981 as an alternatives resource and granting organization.  It has created and maintained the Altweb site.  It awards grants to scientists interested in developing alternatives and has organized conferences and symposia about specific alternatives issues.  The Extramural Grants Program awards pilot grants to scientists interested in developing alternatives to whole animals for product safety and drug efficacy testing.  The In Vitro Toxicology Program is to facilitate collaboration among Johns Hopkins faculty interested in using in vitro systems in toxicity testing.  Validation Program grants are for defining and validating in vitro test methods with the goal of achieving regulatory acceptance and implementation.  The Information/Education Program is CAAT’s major outreach program to provide balanced and scientifically accurate information on the status and use of alternatives in research, teaching, and testing.  This is done by hosting symposia and publishing proceedings.  The CAAT Newsletter, and a newsletter for middle school students called CAATALYST are out of print, but archival copies can be found on the site.  The CAAT Newsletter is available online at Altweb and contains information on the 3Rs and alternative methods, information resources, grants programs, and international news items.  CAAT Technical Reports such as The International Status of Validation of In Vitro Toxicity Tests from 1993 are on the CAAT and Altweb sites.

Compilation of Literature on the Assessment of Animal Welfare and Animal Distress
WWW: http://www.vetinfo.demon.nl/aw/index.html

A free bibliographic database compiled by Hans Kuiper of Utrecht University and T. Allen of the Animal Welfare Information Center.  The site contains over 600 citations, some with links to the full text article, links to relevant organizations, legislation, and journals.  The focus of this database is refinement alternatives.

ECVAM : The European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods
Institute for Health and Consumer Protection
EC-Joint Research Centre
21020 (VA) Ispra Italy
phone: +39 0332 785996, fax: +39 0332 785336

ECVAM, established by a Communication of the European Commission to Council and Parliament, was founded in 1993 and is part of the newly-formed Institute for Health and Consumer Protection of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission since 1998. It was created to play a leading role at the European level in the independent evaluation of the relevance and reliability of tests and test strategies for specific purposes, through research on advanced methods and new test development and validation.  Its primary purpose is to act as a focal point at the European level in this area, in relation to Directive 86/609/EEC, and seeks to promote the scientific and regulatory acceptance of alternative methods, aiming to replace, reduce, and refine use of laboratory animals.  One area of ECVAM research is establishing the reliability and relevance of a procedure for a particular purpose in the various areas of alternatives that involves testing coded materials according to an identical protocol in several independent laboratories.  Before validation of an alternative method, new tests must satisfy certain development criteria.

ECVAM’s Scientific Information Service (SIS) is a database containing factual and evaluated information about nonanimal toxicity testing.  It provides information on alternatives at any stage of development coming from a wide range of information sources.  All ECVAM workshop reports are included in the SIS databases.  Thirty-five have been published in the scientific journal ATLA and are already available on the FRAME and ALTWEB sites. Publication of a first part of SIS is expected for 2000.

Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments (FRAME)
Russell & Burch House
96-98 North Sherwood Street
Nottingham NG1 4EE United Kingdom
phone: +44 (0)115 958 4740, fax: +44 (0)115 950 3570
e-mail: frame@frame.org.uk
WWW: http://www.frame.org.uk/

Founded in 1969, FRAME is a charitable trust that advocates the 3 Rs of Russell and Burch by encouraging realistic consideration of ethical and scientific issues.  FRAME publishes a scientific journal, ATLA (Alternatives to Laboratory Animals) that contains original scientific papers, reports of ECVAM (European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods), and  workshops.  FRAME also publishes a newsletter, FRAME News, aimed at scientists, politicians, administrators and the public, and Friends of FRAME which is published for FRAME individual supporters.  The booklet Selection and Use of Replacement Methods in Animal Experimentation, produced by FRAME and UFAW, gives a brief overview of alternatives to use of animals and lists resources for further information.  FRAME provides workshops on The Information Requirements of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, to assist U.K. researchers in performing literature searches for alternatives.  Fees vary according to materials.

The FRAME web site provides an original section on searching for alternatives.  A Guide to Searching for Alternatives to the Use of Laboratory Animals by Krys Bottrill contains sections on search basics, search terms and strategies, Internet search engines, database selection and access, and mailing lists and other discussion forums.  The sections contain in-depth descriptions and links to relevant outside articles, databases, and other resources.  Other unique features of the site include extensive descriptions of types of alternatives, a list of suppliers of in vitro produced monoclonal antibodies, and lists of FRAME-funded research projects.

Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)
Animal Research Issues
700 Professional Dr.
Gaithersburg, MD 20879 USA
phone: (301) 258-3042, fax: (301) 258-7760
e-mail: dkossow@hsus.org
WWW: http://www.hsus.org

The mission of the HSUS Animal Research Issues division is to reduce and eventually eliminate harm to animals used in research, teaching, and testing through promotion of alternative methods and other means.  This site includes position statements on alternatives, news analysis, the HSUS campaign to eliminate pain and distress, and a section on animals in education.  The division operates a loan program to provide students and educators with alternatives to classroom animal dissection and live animal experimentation.  The only cost to borrowers is return postage.  Borrowers can be international as well as domestic. The materials are at secondary school and college levels and include models, software, CD-ROMs, charts, and videotapes.  A description of the program and each product is on the web site.

Interagency Coordinating Committee for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM)
NICEATM, NIEHS, ICCVAM
79 Alexander Drive, Mail Drop EC-17
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 USA
phone: (919) 541-3398, fax: (919) 541-0947
e-mail: NICEATM@niehs.nih.gov
WWW: http://iccvam.niehs.nih.gov

ICCVAM and its supporting center, NICEATM (the National Toxicology Program Interagency Center for the Evaluation of Alternative Toxicological Methods), coordinate development, validation, acceptance, and harmonization of alternative toxicological test methods throughout the U.S. Federal Government.  ICCVAM and NICEATM focus efforts on alternatives that predict human and ecological effects better than currently used methods and improve toxicity characterization, increase savings in time and cost, and implement the 3 Rs.  The web site includes the full text of current ICCVAM reports such as the Corrositex Report, meeting proceedings, information about testing method development, and methods under review.

The Norwegian Reference Centre for Laboratory Animal Science & Alternatives
Knutepunktet for forsøksdyrlære og alternativer til dyreforsøk
Laboratory Animal Unit
Norwegian School of Veterinary Science
P.O. Box 8146 Dep.,
N-0033 Oslo Norway
phone: +47 22 96 45 74 or +47 22 96 45 75
fax: +47 22 96 45 35, e-mail: adrian.smith@veths.no
WWW: http://oslovet.veths.no

The Reference Centre supports the Laboratory Animal Unit of the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science and the general public by providing information on teaching and training in laboratory animal science, alternatives to animal experiments, health monitoring of laboratory animals, and animal welfare and ethics.  The site contains full-text articles about laboratory animal science, Norwegian legislation, meeting announcements, links, the NORINA database, and Information on Alternatives Databases.

NORINA (A Norwegian Inventory of Alternatives)
WWW: http://oslovet.veths.no/NORINA

The NORINA database provides an overview of possible alternatives or supplements to the use of animals in education from primary schools through university levels.  It consists of about 3600 entries, (May 1999) including computer programs, CD-ROMs, interactive videos, films and more traditional teaching aids such as slide series, 3-D models, and classroom charts.  There is also a section for Contact Persons who are developing and/or using audiovisuals at their institution and for suppliers of audiovisuals.  The database is keyword searchable and search results include descriptions and ordering information for the products.  Users, developers, and suppliers of audiovisuals are invited to send in details for future updates of the database.

Information on Alternatives Databases
WWW: http://oslovet.veths.no/databasesintro.html

This collection of links to over 20 databases resulted from an international collaboration following the ECVAM Workshop on Alternatives Databases (1996) and the 2nd World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences.  The databases are briefly described and numerically coded by areas covered (for example, databases of experts, funding, reduction alternatives).

University of California Center for Animal Alternatives
School of Veterinary Medicine
University of California
Davis, CA 95616 USA
phone: (530) 752-1800
e-mail: animalalternatives@ucdavis.edu
WWW: http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/Animal_Alternatives/main.htm

The Center disseminates information concerning models, computer programs, and other animal alternatives in education through every level of public and private education.  It coordinates the sharing of alternative products and information for the University of California (UC) system, maintains a library for UC employees, and provides outreach and educational activities related to alternatives.

The web site includes original publications such as bibliographies and resource guides, the newsletter UC Alert, and proceedings summaries from workshops hosted by a UC institution such as The Third R: Refinement Workshop.  The site also includes original information about how to perform the alternative literature search (including the service provided by the UC Center, terminology, and list of bibliographic databases) and automated search templates for refinement of research methods with mice and unobtrusive study of animals in the wild.

Summary  There are many web sites that contain information about alternatives.  The future might bring consolidation of materials from diverse sites into one major source such as Altweb or more specialized sites for particular alternatives such as Skin Irritation Testing.  While some sites cover alternatives in education, research, and testing, they may have specialty areas.  From the list below, here are some examples:

Education: AVAR, HSUS, NORINA, UCCAA
Research: Altweb, AWIC, FRAME
Testing: ICCVAM, Skin Irritation Testing

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The Animal Welfare Information Center
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Agricultural Research Service
National Agricultural Library
10301 Baltimore Ave.
Beltsville, MD 20705-2351

Phone: (301) 504-6212
FAX: (301) 504-7125
Contact us: http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/contact.php

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