UK Animal Experiments at 17 Year High, Back to Early 1990s Levels. Science Needs a ‘Roadmap to Replacement’ Says Dr Hadwen Trust For Humane Research

LONDON - Home Office statistics released today (21 July 2009) reveal that Britain’s animal experiments have reached a shocking 17 year high at 3.7 million experiments, a 14% rise since 2007. The Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research, the UK’s leading non-animal medical research charity, today reacted by saying that far greater progress to replace animals with alternatives should have been made but instead animal numbers are now as high as they were in the early 1990s.

On this the 50th anniversary of the birth of the 3Rs (Russell and Burch’s concept of the replacement, reduction and refinement of animal experiments), the Dr Hadwen Trust says this is ‘a wake-up call moment for policy makers’ and is calling on all major political parties to commit to devising a ‘roadmap to replacement’. Click here to read our letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, copied also to David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Dr Caroline Lucas. www.drhadwentrust.org/media-briefings/media-briefings

There were 3.656 million animal experiments started in 2008, involving 3.583 million individual animals - a shocking 39% increase since Labour came to power, a 14% rise since 2007 alone. There were significant increases in the experiments on GM animals (now 36.5% of all procedures); monkeys (16% rise); cats (17% rise); pigs (95% rise) and fish and amphibians (85% and 82% rise respectively). (see below for statistics of particular note).

Dr Sebastien Farnaud, Science Director at the Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research and a molecular biologist at Westminster University, believes far greater progress to replace animals should have been made:

“This year is the fifty-year anniversary of the very concept of replacing, reducing and refining animal experiments and yet instead of an alternatives revolution we are marking the occasion with the highest level of animal experiments in seventeen years.” says Dr Farnaud. “It has repeatedly been shown how irrelevant to human patients animal disease models can be, so sustaining such high animal use is not in the best interests of science. With the scientific expertise this country has to offer, we should have seen far greater progress to replace animals with more advanced techniques. Instead animal numbers are now as bad as they were in the early 1990s. Such a shocking increase in animal experiments should be a wake-up call moment for policy makers that considerably more effort must be focused on alternatives development in biomedical science not simply to avoid animal suffering, but crucially so that medical research can benefit from the advantages that non-animal approaches can bring.”

The Dr Hadwen Trust has today written to the main political parties calling on them to commit to building a ‘roadmap to replacement’. A roadmap is needed to identify key target areas for increased funding, technology development, R&D and political support in order to progressively reduce and ultimately replace animal experiments.

The Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research funds cutting-edge research at universities across Britain. Our projects aim to replace the use of animals in medical research and by so doing, improve the relevance and quality of research into debilitating conditions such as multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis, skin cancer and brain disorders. For example, in March a Dr Hadwen Trust-funded three-dimensional human cell model of early breast cancer won the NC3Rs’ animal replacement prize. The model offers a more human-relevant approach and replaces experiments that can use up to 400 mice per test in tumour studies. Click here for our Media Briefing on non-animal replacement research. www.drhadwentrust.org/media-briefings/media-briefings

Statistics of note:

- There has been a 39% increase in animal experiments since Labour came to power in 1997. - 14% rise in animal experiments since 2007 - 16% rise in procedures on GM animals since 2007 - 16% rise in monkey experiments since 2007 (61% increase in monkeys used for cardiovascular experiments; 34% rise in nervous system research) - 17% rise in cats, and 9% rise in mice used since 2007 - 95% rise in pig experiments (mainly immunology) - 65% of procedures conducted without any form of anaesthesia - Genetic modification of animals now represents 36.5% of all procedures - Decreases in use of dogs (18%), rabbits (13%) - All animal procedures are defined by the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 as likely to cause “pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm”.

In 1959 zoologist William Russell and microbiologist Rex Burch published “The principles of humane experimental technique” which first launched the concept of the ‘Three Rs’ of replacement, reduction and refinement. The Three Rs concept has now been adopted throughout the world as the key guiding principle in the humane use of animals in research, and is incorporated into the legislation and regulations of many countries including the UK, and the European Union.

Notes to Editor

Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals - Great Britain, 2008, released in a summary, on the Home Office website on 21 July 2009. The complete document is available at rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/scientific1.html

Total animal procedures started in 2008 (3.656 million) is the highest since 1992.

The Principles of Humane Experimental Technique, W.M.S. Russell and R.L. Burch: altweb.jhsph.edu/publications/humane_exp/het-toc.htm

The Dr Hadwen Trust is the UK’s leading non-animal medical research charity funding exclusively non-animal techniques to replace animal experiments. www.drhadwentrust.org

Source: Dr Hadwen Trust For Humane Research

For more information or to arrange interviews contact Wendy Higgins, Communications Director on mobile: +44(0)7989-972-423 or email wendy at drhadwentrust.org