Intervet invests in the 3Rs

To build on Intervet UK’s commitment to advancing the 3R concept of reducing, refining or replacing the use of animals in research, Keith Redhead and Karl Jackson from Intervet’s R&D division will be presenting a poster at the ‘Sixth World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences’ in Tokyo in August.

Supported by a grant from the National Centre for the 3Rs, the poster – the development of replacement in-vitro assays for the quantification of clostridial vaccine antigens – demonstrates Intervet’s investment in research to help reduce the number of animals used in tests during the development and production of veterinary medicines.

Dr Ellen de Brabander, Vice-President of R&D at Intervet International, will also be presenting the annual Dieter Lϋtticken Award to Dr Mark Stevens from the Institute of Animal Health at the congress.  The €20,000 prize is awarded in recognition of his valuable research in developing animal models to study the pathogenesis on enteric bacterial infections of livestock and the use of novel genetic methods to dissect the molecular basis of bacterial virulence.

The company’s annual award is named after Dieter Lϋtticken, a committed researcher in microbiology and virology.   Dieter was a respected figure who guided and shaped Intervet’s R&D for more than a quarter of a century and established what became a tradition – Intervet’s sound support and close collaboration with basic research.

Jim Hungerford, general manager of Intervet UK, comments, “We’re extremely proud of our ongoing investment in the 3R concept – to reduce, refine or replace the use of animals in research – which is an integral part of our ongoing R&D programme.”

Application forms are now available for researchers wishing to apply for the 2008 this year’s Dieter Lϋtticken Award, which has a deadline of Thursday 15 November 2007.  For further information and an application form, please email communications@intervet.com or visit www.intervet.co.uk.