There is increasing resistance to animal testing among researchers from Upper Austria. An ethics council at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz is now making the decision. Mice were replaced at the University of Applied Sciences of Upper Austria in Wels.
Useful or nonsensical? Necessary or superfluous? The tug-of-war over animal testing in research is still ubiquitous. “The scientific community needs a rethink — mice and rats are still the gold standard,” said Julian Weghuber, a professor of molecular cell physiology at the Upper Austrian University of Applied Sciences in Wels.
“We avoid experiments on mice,” emphasizes the 43-year-old from Molln, who and his team rely on cell culture tests or use chemical-analytical processes to use chicken embryos or fruit flies. “Chicken embryos do not yet have a fully developed nervous system and therefore do not feel pain; the guts of fruit flies are similar to those of humans,” explains Weghuber.
“Being strict is absolutely justified”
Weghuber thinks it is good that an animal ethics council, consisting of laymen and experts, will decide from this year on whether animal experiments can be carried out in the biomedical research facility or whether there are alternatives at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz. “Being tight here is absolutely justified.”
The university professor has made a name for himself. With a working group, he worked on a plant-based active ingredient for a product for food supplement manufacturer PM-International from Luxembourg that is now used to prevent diabetes.
Source: Krone
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