The Walcopa members of Liège have written a position paper on animal testing and alternative methods that adopts VPHi position on the topic.
In preparation to the inauguration of the Walcopa, the Walloon Centre for alternative methods for animal testing, University of Liege has released a position statement that expands the original view of the VPHi community on the topic.
In the past, the VPH Institute has actively contributed to the discussion on the 3Rs approach, producing an initial position paper in Jan 2012, and successively giving its contribute to the petition requesting the ban of all animal testing in Europe, which took place in 2014. In brief, the VPHi proposed to apply to animal testing a similar approach to the one used in VPH technologies for humans. The animal is examined with imaging and sensing instrumentation, generating data that would be collected in digital form and processed to generate a large-scale computer simulation of the animal, capable of predicting how the animal experiment will evolve. Once this examination is done, results can be compared with the prediction of the actual experiments, allowing to refine models until they are sufficiently accurate in their prediction. From then on, simulated experiments of the same kind can be done without involving additional animals, or involving only a much smaller number in order to confirm the predictions made.
This new Belgian position paper takes in consideration the current Belgian scenario on alternative methods for animal testing, presenting the different approaches that have been proposed so far not only by VPHi, but also by the Metascience approach and Open Science.
For more information on the document, contact Prof Lies Geris
