More Progress on Replacing Animal Testing in Iran

The Iranian Anti-Vivisection Association (IAVA), winner of a Lush Prize for Training in 2016, has continued to make great progress to replace animal testing in the country.

Dr Ramak Roshanaei, IAVA’s Director, told Lush Prize:

“The Ministry of Health has ordered physiology and pharmacology classes in 44 medical schools to start using alternatives to animals.

This is so important to us, since:

• This is a completely new approach in our medical education sector, ordering the use of Replacements in 63 universities countrywide;
• It has introduced the concept of Replacement methods to a wide range of audiences including students, who were mostly unfamiliar with these methods.
• We believe that the moral sensitisation in our education sector could initiate and facilitate the use of Replacements in our research sector.

We hope that the move that we have started in medical universities will eventually find its way to veterinary schools and research centres. However, there are still some obstacles in our way towards this major historical change, including the justification of the importance and feasibility of using Replacements, encouraging lecturers to learn and use Replacement methods, and providing equipment and devices to all universities involved.”

Dr Roshanaei added that her organisation’s successes are “absolutely one of the results that the energy from winning a Lush Prize gave to the IAVA”.

IAVA has some more exciting news about ending animal use in education, which we hope to be able to share with you soon.