U.S. Panel Urges an End to Some Animal Trials

The U.S. government is quietly advising that companies end some controversial animal tests, saying laboratory alternatives exist that are quicker and just as good. The tests look for corrosive chemicals and involve shaving an animal, painting the compound onto its skin and then waiting for up to two weeks to see if damage results.

The recommendations, from a committee set up to find alternatives to animal tests, go to federal agencies ranging from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Department of Transportation, which can choose whether to change their regulations. The North Carolina-based Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods, established to review animal tests, said there are four alternative tests that do not require the use of live animals.

They are Episkin, based on human collagen; a human skin cell-based test called EpiDerm; the Rat Skin TER assay, which uses disks of rat skin; and Corrositex, which also uses layers of collagen--the material that holds skin together.