{"id":3044,"date":"2025-02-02T18:07:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-02T17:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/transcience.fr\/whats-new-in-alternative-teaching-tools\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T15:49:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T14:49:15","slug":"whats-new-in-alternative-teaching-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/transcience.fr\/en\/whats-new-in-alternative-teaching-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s new in alternative teaching tools?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

France remains a major user of animals in higher education and vocational training, and even the second user in the European Union behind Germany (*), despite the fact that numerous alternative tools already exist, that others could be developed, and that in some cases the use of animals is absolutely unjustified. Yet these projects receive a favourable opinion from the “animal experimentation ethics committees” and are granted administrative authorization by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, even though they contravene the regulations, since the replacement principle is not applied (on this point, please refer to the “Legal” category of our site). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(*) In 2022: 24,292 for vocational training and 11,287 for higher education, compared with 39,462 and 9,233 respectively in Germany, but only 1,468 and 43 in Italy, and 7,708 and 5,296 in the Netherlands.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The animals used are mostly small rodents, but also rabbits and large mammals, especially pigs for training surgeons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two main categories of use:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Use in training programs linked to professional practices that require learning and perfecting technical or even highly technical skills: training programs for laboratory technicians who use animals, training programs for surgeons, training programs for the livestock industry and – in a very controlled way – veterinary training programs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Used to acquire anatomical or physiological knowledge, or to verify the acquisition of theoretical concepts covered in lectures: bachelor’s and master’s degrees in life sciences and biology, biological engineering, pharmacology, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The special case of veterinary training<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    You’d think that veterinary medicine and surgery would be the fields in which the use of animals would be necessary and “acceptable”, insofar as the technical gestures to be acquired will be applied to “animal patients” who will ultimately<\/em> benefit from this learning. In fact, the use of live animals as part of their training was a rather unpleasant experience for most veterinary students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In France, veterinary schools have been leading the way for several years now in replacing the use of live animals with alternative teaching tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The advantages of non-animal teaching aids<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As Anne Gogny – a veterinary doctor and practitioner at Oniris (Nantes National Veterinary School) – pointed out at a conference organized by the Acad\u00e9mie V\u00e9t\u00e9rinaire de France on April 29, 2024, non-animal teaching aids offer numerous educational, ethical and economic advantages.<\/strong> Even so, she acknowledged that there are limits to the use of non-animal models, due to the difficulty of manufacturing certain organs and the often very high cost of commercial models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Video of the conference here : Learning veterinary techniques through medical simulation… – YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    The list below does not claim to be exhaustive, as the market for alternatives is constantly evolving, and manufacturers are often based outside the European Union, but it will give the reader a good idea of the diversity of (often unused) possibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    What replacement tools and methods should be used in vocational training?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n