Cell culture
Cell culture can be an alternative to animal use in some cases. For example, cultured cells have been developed to create monoclonal antibodies; prior to this, production required animals to undergo a procedure likely to cause pain and distress. However, even though cell or tissue culture methods may reduce the number of experiments performed on intact animals, the maintenance of cells in culture normally requires the use of animal-derived serum. Although exact figures are difficult to obtain, some have estimated that one million foetal cows are sacrificed each year to obtain the world's supply of foetal bovine serum, used to grow cultured cells.