{"id":113497,"date":"2020-05-13T15:14:03","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T13:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=113497"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:24:56","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:24:56","slug":"animal-experiments-are-unavoidable-for-coronavirus-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2020\/05\/13\/animal-experiments-are-unavoidable-for-coronavirus-research\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Animal experiments are unavoidable for coronavirus research\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has always been a balancing act for Martje Fentener van Vlissingen, director of the Erasmus centre for animal research (EDC). But the outbreak of COVID-19 makes her work even more complicated. For example, can you stop an animal experiment halfway through or not? “We’re running a marathon right now.”<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTatiana Bulyonkova<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

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Martje Fentener van Vlissingen, head of the EDC.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

Scientific research has not been deemed an essential service by the government. What consequences does this have for animal experiments? Erasmus MC researchers play an indispensable role in the fight against COVID-19 when it comes to understanding the disease and the development and testing of a medicine or vaccine to combat it. The EDC is important in this respect. The centre also has special in-house equipment that is desperately needed right now, says Fentener van Vlissingen.<\/p>\n

What was your work like before COVID-19?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAt the Erasmus centre for animal research we have all the experiments which involve animal testing under our roof. This way we can make sure that all legal requirements are complied with as much as possible and are also able to bundle the research where we can. I supervise around sixty people for that. We do experiments on mice and zebra fish, but also on monkeys and pigs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in 2017 you said in the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad that you are all working towards minimising animal testing. How far have you got with that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe trend over the last few years has been that the number of animals used in animal testing is declining steadily. This is due, for instance, to the fact that we are gaining more and more information from each animal and are consequently doing increasingly more efficient and high-quality work. The political reality in the Netherlands, and also in Europe, is that we do as little animal testing as possible. In the Netherlands, animals have a high moral status. I\u2019m a veterinarian and that\u2019s my take on it as well.<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018In the last twenty years we have made a lot of progress in cancer research and that could not have happened without animal testing\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

\u201cAt the same time, we cannot afford to eliminate all animal testing. The technology is simply not yet advanced enough to test everything on humans. That makes it a difficult and, in some circles, controversial subject. What people sometimes forget in the discussion about animal testing is that it\u2019s also about human lives. In the last twenty years we have made a lot of progress in cancer research and that could not have happened without animal testing. That\u2019s a consideration that has to be constantly weighed up.\u201d<\/p>\n

How has the coronavirus affected your work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as the virus broke out in China, we noticed it here in Rotterdam. Our infectious disease group plays a prominent role worldwide in research on the virus, for example, advising the World Health Organisation (WHO). It\u2019s not entirely coincidental that Erasmus MC started the research right at the time of the outbreak. We were also involved in research on SARS-COV-1 and MERS (both are coronaviruses, ed.).<\/p>\n

\u201cFor research on these coronaviruses, animal experiments are unavoidable. For example, they are needed to characterise what the interaction of the virus is with the host. In humans, you can only examine patients if they already have it. You can\u2019t deliberately infect them and see what happens on day one, three and five. In monkeys, for example, you can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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