PETA Science Consortium International Donates Equipment for Eye Irritation Testing

PETA Science Consortium International e.V. has donated a laser-light beam opacitometer (LLBO) to the Institute for In Vitro Sciences, Inc. The equipment, worth US$20,000, can be used to measure opacity in the Bovine Corneal Opacity And Permeability (BCOP) test (OECD Test Guideline No. 437)—a method that can replace the use of live rabbits. In 2020, the BCOP Test Guideline was updated to allow the use of an LLBO, which was shown to have similar performance as the OP-KIT opacitometer used in the validation of the BCOP test method. The LLBO assesses a wide corneal surface area, thereby enabling identification of effects on the periphery of the cornea.