Editor’s Spotlight/Take 5: Are the Lives of Animals Well-spent in Laboratory Science Research? A Study of Orthopaedic Animal Studies in Turkey

Letter to the Editor: Editorial: In Musculoskeletal Research, Too Many Animals are Being Harmed for Too Small a Return

“…Rather belatedly, I have read with great interest the March 2021 CORR ® editorial, “In Musculoskeletal Research: Too Many Animals are Being Harmed for Too Little Return” [7], which builds on a paper by Turkish surgeons who came to this conclusion after analyzing the results of experiments involving 9400 animals [14]. Later, their paper was the subject of an Editor’s Spotlight [6], which included an interview with the senior author of that study, Alper Öztürk MD, who discussed fundamental questions about the scientific validity and ethical defensibility of animal research.…”

Reply to the Letter to the Editor: Editorial: In Musculoskeletal Research, Too Many Animals are Being Harmed for Too Small a Return

“…Appropriate and perhaps mandatory use of these guidelines could lead to better-designed studies and improve the low publication proportion. However, the fact that many animal research studies never become peer-reviewed publications reflects the fact that those studies’ designers do not ask the right questions and/or do not design the studies in ways that are likely to improve human health [4]. We found that most animal studies in Turkey are performed for academic advancement, obtaining an academic title, or filling up CVs [5].…”

The dark side of the animal experiments

“…In addition to these examples of abuse in animal experiments, a topic that has been discussed recently is that although thousands of animals are spent on scientific experiments, the majority of these studies are not published[ 3 , 19 - 23 ] or the impact of the published ones on scientific progress is controversial due to the limited transfer of animal experimental data to humans. [ 3 , 17 , 19 , 20 ] Öztürk and Ersan[ 3 ] reported that more than 40% of animal experiments that were represented at national orthopedic congress in Türkiye over a nine-year period were never published, and 38% of those that were published never cited or were cited only once. They found that 4,440 animals were euthanized for no obvious scientific gain in unpublished studies.…”

“…[ 3 ] Unpublished animal studies result in waste of animal life. [ 3 , 19 - 23 ] Öztürk and Ersan[ 3 ] suggested that publishing even animal studies that did not find significant differences would be helpful to avoid duplication of the same study. There are guidelines such as the Animal Research: Reporting of In vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guidelines to reduce the unnecessary animal experiments and to overcome the inadequate methodology in animal studies.…”

“…[ 24 ] Researchers are expected to comply with the ARRIVE criteria and make the necessary effort to publish the results of animal studies and, therefore, the lives of animals sacrificed in experimental studies are not wasted for nothing. [ 3 , 19 , 20 ] van der Worp et al[ 25 ] suggested that the only way to prevent the unreported data in animal studies was to have a central registry system for animal studies similarly to clinical trial registry systems.…”