Alternatives to animal experiments in parasitology

Alternatives to animal experiments are measures which lead to "Reduction, R efinement and Replacement" of such experiments and are internationally know n under the abbreviation 3 R. In parasitology several measures can contribu te to the aims of 3 R, such as legal regulations on animal welfare, interna tional guidelines for efficacy evaluation of antiparasitic drugs, the refin ement of animal models for parasitic infections and infestations, cryoprese rvation and cultivation of parasites in vitro or in embryonated chicken egg s, the in vitro feeding and maintenance of haematophagous arthropods, and t he use of in vitro techniques of immunology and molecular biology, for exam ple methods of gene technology for producing antigens for vaccines and immu nodiagnostic tests. Progress achieved in recent times is remarkable, but se veral alternative methods are not optimised for broad use in laboratory pra ctice, not standardised and too expensive. In some areas there are only ini tial stages of alternatives available. Therefore, further efforts in the se nse of 3 R are necessary which require long-term support of research.