Linking One Health to 3R

Culture of Care as a bridge towards Russell and Burch's highest goal: Replacement

Abstract

Animal testing has long been ethically controversial, initially due to religious and cultural beliefs and increasingly because of the obvious suffering inflicted. The 3Rs principles are now a central part of laboratory practice and have prompted discussions about adding further Rs to take account of societal values. However, this expansion can lead to contradictions, such as the emphasis on reproducibility, which implies the continued use of animals and thus conflicts with the original highest goal of the 3Rs, replacement. At the same time, the Culture of Care approach associated with the 3Rs promotes a change in the human-animal relationship but has not significantly challenged the use of animals in research. The One Health approach, which recognizes the connection between human, animal and environmental health, is also often criticized for prioritizing human health over animal welfare. This article aims to show how the One Health approach can be consistently extended to interdisciplinarity and intersectionality to include animals as stakeholders in the debate. It will also discuss the potential of the Culture of Care approach to transfer the implications of a consistently conceived One Health approach to the field of animal experimentation, in order to bring the complete renunciation of the use of sentient beings back into the focus of 3R research.