| BANGALORE: Pharmacy students across the country will now have to stop experiments on animals. Close on the heels of the University Grants Commission (UGC) notifying a ban on dissection of animals for academic purposes at the under-graduate and post-graduate levels on college campuses, the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) has directed its institutions to impose a similar ban.
In a recent gazette notification dated August 28, 2014 (a copy of which is available with TOI), PCI said, "wherever animal experimentation are prescribed in the curriculum, the required knowledge and skill should be imparted by using computer assisted modules".
The move would replace the use of mice, rats and guinea pigs which are routinely used to train pharmacy students. Animal activists including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India had been pushing for the ban as they alleged that painful experiments involving burning animals' feet, electrocuting them, inducing convulsions, and killing them were common in pharmacy courses.
In Karnataka, there are over 140 colleges offering various pharmacy courses and 75 are degree colleges wherein animals are used for various drug experiments.
Welcoming the move, Dr Chaitanya Koduri, science policy adviser, PETA India, said PCI's move would spare countless animals from suffering. "It will also enrich the lives of students who will now be able to learn using modern, sophisticated, non-animal techniques," he added.
There has been a trend away from the use of animals in education in India. While in May this year, the Medical Council of India (MCI) amended its education regulations to call for the use of modern, non-animal teaching methods for under-graduate students, in June, UGC issued a notification ending dissection and experimentation (for training purposes) in university and college zoology and life sciences under-graduate and post-graduate courses.
'Total embargo a problem'
S Mohan, principal, PES College of Pharmacy, said a total embargo on animal experimentation would pose a problem when it comes to practical knowledge. "Experiments on animals play a crucial role in pre-clinical studies. Today's labs are not like earlier when even at the school level, animals would be used. There are ethical committees in institutions to ensure that experiments on animals are carried out in a certain way. We've already replaced animal experiments with alternative demonstrations at the diploma level and even at the degree level and post-graduate level, experiments are carried out only when they're absolutely necessary," he added. |