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Report of the Workshop on Fetal Bovine Serum Replacement in Cell Cultures

workshop, but due to illness, the chair was taken over by Dr Vera Baumans. Dr René Fischer, leader of a project for animal-free research, funded by Dr Gruber’s Swiss Foundation, Fund for Animal-Free Research (FFVFF), presented his research project on the replacement of fetal bovine serum (FBS) by the use of cell lines adapted to chemically fullydefined medium. Culturing cells in vitro requires the presence of nutrients. For that reason, cells are grown in a medium containing essential factors for cell growth and viability. FBS provides these components, such as proteins, lipids and minerals. However, the use of FBS has raised moral, as well as scientific, concerns (1). Moral concerns stem from the harvesting of FBS, causing possible pain and/or suffering in the bovine fetus, taking into account the resistance of the fetus to anoxia. Scientific concern arises because FBS is undefined, with a variable composition, leading to batch–batch variation in the medium and the risk of contamination by viruses, bacteria and prions. These concerns were discussed, and it was concluded that: 1. When fetal blood is collected from the heart not earlier than 20 minutes after the pregnant cows have been slaughtered, it can be assumed that fetuses experience prolonged cerebral anoxia and would be unconscious during the process (2). However, inflation of the lungs should be prevented by retaining the fetus’s head inside the amniotic sac or by clamping the trachea (Dr David Mellor, New Zealand Guidelines).