Every year up to 800,000 litres of foetal calf serum is produced. Approximately 2 million almost full-term calves must die. It is estimated that in Europe production takes place in about 25 slaughterhouses, but it is thought that there is considerable hidden production – one reason being that slaughterhouses do not provide information on this niche-production. Read more…
The researcher’s legal obligation
Researchers have both a moral and a legal obligation to seek out and use alternatives to laboratory animals wherever possible[1]. As far as the law is concerned, use of alternatives – the 3Rs – is the corner stone of the EU directive on protection of animals used for scientific purposes. Read more…
Health risk
FBS presents a significant risk to the manufacture of medicines, as it contains varying amounts of endotoxins, haemoglobin and other unwanted or harmful substances. Read more…
Fraud and falsification
Demand for serum for cell culture has in recent years almost exploded, and there is a lot of money to be made in the business. However it is a very opaque business, which is subject to little if any control. There are many indications that fraud and falsification are widespread. Just a few instances are given here. Read more…
Scientifically unreliable
Foetal calf serum is a product, the precise content of which is unknown. Moreover, the content varies from batch to batch. This means that there can be big differences between FBS-batches with different amounts of endotoxins and other undesired elements as well as other unwanted, and unknown, substances which affect the growth of cell cultures in different ways. The use of foetal calf serum therefore makes scientific research less reliable, harder to reproduce and experimental results harder to compare. It is therefore much harder to make use of the research. Read more…