Report on the conference on "Animal testing and society: philosophical issues in supervising projects using animals and areas for improvement"

On March 10, the conference on "Animal testing and society: philosophical issues in supervising projects using animals and areas for improvement" was held via Teams.

Some 210 of you attended the event, organized jointly by the Institut Pasteur's Committee for Ethics in Animal Experimentation (CETEA) and Center for Animal Resources and Research (C2RA).

The aim of the event was to present the various stakeholders who are responsible not only for devising and implementing experimental procedures on animals in compliance with regulatory requirements, but also for providing the unparalleled resources already available to the Institut Pasteur scientific community and those currently being developed to optimize animal use at the Institut Pasteur. The address by the Director of the Scientific Interest Group GIS FC3R, the French leader for all questions about the 3Rs, was an opportunity to reiterate the Institut Pasteur's commitment in setting up the group and its presence on the steering committee. GIS FC3R’s missions are to bring together research stakeholders on the principle of the 3Rs and to help optimize the use of animals at national level. The afternoon was brought to a close with a lecture by guest speaker Joëlle Proust on current knowledge about metacognition in animals, which encouraged those listening to reflect on the way in which animals are used in animal testing.

A short questionnaire will be sent out today to all those who registered for the lecture to gather your views on the format and the speakers and your expectations and requirements for future events on the topic. Many thanks in advance for taking part.

If you were unable to attend, a video of the event is now available online.

Watch the conference (you may be asked to enter your Pasteur email login details)