Prohibitive cost of in vitro monoclonal antibody production in an investigator s laboratory. In estimating your cost, please include the cost of maintaining and housing animals, labor associated with animal care, and purification of the monoclonal antibody. Federal regulations require investigators to consider alternatives to procedures that may cause more than momentary or slight pain or distress to animals. As ascites production in mice may cause more than momentary or slight pain or distress to animals, scientists are obligated to consider alternatives to the ascites method. Failure to use in vitro methods in favor of the in vivo method must be scientifically justified, and the ARC will not approve the use of the mouse ascites method in the absence of such a justification.
Several resources are available to assist investigators in the search for alternatives.
Alternatives include methods that reduce, refine, or replace the use of animals in research, teaching, and testing. A dose of 0.5 ml i.p. may cause noticeable distress, which is not seen with the equally efficacious dose of 0.1 to 0.2 ml. Therefore, pristane-priming must be performed with doses no greater than 0.2 ml per injection unless scientifically justified in the animal use protocol. Scientific justification must be provided in the animal use protocol for the use of priming agents other than pristane. Inoculation Tumor cell lines should be tested for murine virus.