The Veterinary Council of India (VCI) has phased out the current practice of killing animals for the purpose of anatomical and surgical studies in veterinary colleges.
“Dissection will be carried out on bodies procured by way of donation of animals or animals obtained from post-mortem section and the donated animals should be either incurable or in terminal stages and prosected specimens should be used,” the VCI stipulated in a revised regulations on veterinary education.
The revised regulations of the council, notified in an official gazette recently, make it mandatory for all veterinary colleges to set up a body donation programme or wild body programme as prescribed within a year.
“Computer simulation software, models, mannequins, plastinated specimens, preserved body organs, models should be used for better understanding of the subject,” it added.
Simulated experiments
The laboratories for simulated experiments should be established within a span of one year, it said. The VCI Minimum Standards of Veterinary Education — (Bachelor of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Degree Course) Regulations, 2016, for the colleges, also mandated doing away with the requirement of recording of cardiogram of a live frog’s heart to study the effects of heat and cold on the amphibian in physiology practicals.
Veterinary colleges are now required to replace this laboratory procedure with simulation experiments on “nerve-muscle and heart physiology”. For pharmacology practical sessions also, the new regulations state that simulated animal experiments should be preferred over use of live animals.
Published 20 July 2016, 19:55 IST