Alternatives in toxicology

Alternatives in toxicology are broadly de?ned as toxicological and/or pharmacological tests or experimental approaches that alone or in combination (i) do not utilize animals, or replace the use of higher species animals with lower species animals to obtain equivalent or better scienti?c information, (ii) utilize fewer animals to produce equivalent or better scienti?c results than did previous animal-intensive testing, and (iii) minimize pain and distress to experimental animals. Alternatives have a distinguished history within toxicology (1). An informal survey of papers and posters presented at scienti?c meetings indicates that substantial scienti?c resources are devoted to the development and use of alternatives (2).