L'viv

Lviv Polytechnic National University

We had already successfully cooperated with the L'viv Polytechnic University years ago. Thanks to our efforts, it has been possible to study here completely free of animal use since 2009.

Now the Ukrainian Ministry of Education has presented a new curriculum, according to which a new course on immunology is to be set up. This would include numerous animal experiments. The thymus gland, spleen and bone marrow are to be removed from mice and the reaction of antisera is to be tested on guinea pigs, mice and frogs. The lecturer Veronika Chervetsova, with whom we had signed the agreement at the time, called our Ukrainian project partner Dimitrij Leporskij for help. She wanted to prevent her colleagues from the Department of Technology, Biologically Active Substances, Pharmacy and Biotechnology from introducing the new animal experiments.

The department has been sponsored a brand new lecture theatre by a pharmaceutical company, but the technical equipment is lacking. In January 2013, we signed an agreement with the head of the department and donated a laptop and a series of computer simulations, so that the animal experiments on 220 mice, 13 frogs and 5 guinea pigs required by the ministry will not even begin.

From left: Aelita Krichkovskaya, lecturer Veronika Chervetsova, project leader Dimitrij Leporskij, Elena Fedorova, Head of Department Prof Volodymyr Novikov.

In future, only humane education will be taught in this lecture theatre.