Rabbits no longer required to test pesticide poisoning on humans

In a move that could spare many animals from pain and death, the registration committee of the Central Insecticide Board (CIBRC), under the agriculture ministry, has revised its pesticide testing regulation, which would give companies alternative to tests conducted on rabbits for pesticide poisoning, including eye and skin irritation.

Under the revised testing guidelines issued by the government, companies can conduct tests for eye and skin irritation on using pesticide through modern cell-based alternatives. This would gradually negate the need for tests to be conducted on rabbits for pesticide poisoning.

In a move that could spare many animals from pain and death in crude 1940s-era experiments, the Registration Committee of the Central Insecticide Board under India’s Ministry of Agriculture has revised its pesticide testing regulations to recognize modern, human cell-based alternatives to rabbit tests for the assessment of eye and skin irritation. 

The revised “Guidance Document on Toxicology for Registration of Chemical Pesticides in India” also includes language that directs companies to consider new validated alternative methods to animal testing, and changing some previously ‘unconditional’ test requirements to conditional requirements.

Activists said that earlier which rats or mice are confined to whole-body restraint tubes and forced to breathe in toxic vapours for up to six hours a day – sometimes for weeks on end or at such extreme levels to determine the chemical concentration that is lethal.

“We welcome the Registration Committee’s move to replace notoriously cruel and obsolete animal pesticide tests. The new regulations put India on the right path and will save countless animals from needless suffering, ” Jayasimha Nuggehalli, managing director of Humane Society International (HSI)  --India Chapter which has been spearheading a campaign to stop the practice said.