OneKind and other animal welfare organisations are shocked by the continued upward trend in experimentation, when alternatives to animal experiments are constantly being developed.
Figures released today by the Home Office show that, in 2013, 4.12 million scientific procedures using live animals were started in Great Britain – an increase of 0.3 per cent (+11,600 procedures) over 2012.
4.02 million animals were used for the first time in procedures started in 2013, a small decrease of 15,600 (-0.4%). There was an increase in the number of non-human primates, to a total of 2,202 primates used in 3,236 procedures. 3,554 dogs – mainly beagles – were used in a total of 4,779 procedures; 109 cats were used in 270 procedures; and 330 horses or other equids in 8,504 procedures. Altogether, these “specially protected species” were used in 0.4 per cent of all procedures, with a combined total of almost 16,800 procedures.
More procedures involved breeding genetically modified (GM) animals or animals with a harmful genetic mutation (HM) (2.10 million procedures (51%)) than other purposes (2.02 million procedures (49%)). Overall, there was an increase of 6% (+123,200 procedures) in GM/HM procedures.
Mice, fish and rats were the most commonly used species in 2013, with 3.08 million procedures (75%) undertaken on mice (+18,294 compared with the previous year); 507,373 (12%) on fish +6,543) and 266,265 (6%) on rats (-12,121).
For the remaining species, there were increases for guinea pigs (+13,602);sheep (+2,919); rabbits (+1,233) ;pigs (+350); gerbils (+279); non-human primates (+216) and reptiles (+183).
There were falls for the following species:birds (-13,259); amphibians (-3,338); cattle (-1,167); goats (-969) and hamsters (-354).
The numbers of procedures undertaken for safety testing (toxicology) decreased by 0.5 per cent (-2,000) to 375,000. The number of non-toxicology procedures increased by 0.4 per cent (+13,600) to 3.75 million and included rises in a number of fields: genetics (+58,200); physiology (+41,300); pharmaceutical research and development (+35,900); psychology (+8,400); therapeutics (+6,400) and alcohol (+2,000). There were falls in the fields of nutrition (-76,700) (albeit in the wake of a massive increase during 2012); parasitology (-16,200); biochemistry (-14,600); pharmacology (-12,200); ecology (-12,100); and animal science (-3, 000).
Inspectorate report
The Home Office Animals in Science Regulation Unit (ASRU) Annual Report on the use of animals in science is also published today. The ASRU regulates the operation of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA) and during 2013 its Inspectorate carried out 1,390 visits to scientific establishments using animals. In 2013 there were 90 reports of compliance advice given, for largely technical reasons, while 34 cases of non-compliance were investigated and completed during the year. Twenty-two of these (65%) were self-reported by the establishments.
The report opens with a declared commitment to increased openness about the use of animals in research and gives more detail than in previous years about cases of non-compliance investigated. This increased transparency is welcome, but the reports themselves cause concern about – in some cases – a degree of institutional casualness about authorisations and monitoring of procedures, with severe consequences for the individual animals involved.
For example, at a university, three mice were anaesthetised and shaved and depilatory cream applied to remove remaining hair. The mice were then washed, injected with antibodies and then imaged. Two of the mice were subsequently placed in one cage and the third mouse was housed on its own. The mice were left over the weekend and the two mice housed together were found in a distressed state on the Monday morning with skin lesions. It was established that the shaving of the mice was conducted to a poor standard, and the depilatory cream was not washed off adequately from the animals, causing the skin lesions. Licence holders were reprimanded and required to undergo some retraining.
On a much larger scale, at a breeding establishment, the failure of an air-conditioning unit led to the death of 787 rats and mice and the culling of another 345 for welfare reasons.
The Report comments: “Compliance, and failures to comply, can often be traced back to behaviours, cultures and attitudes. The capacity of the establishment to comply often lies in the attitude of the licensees and named persons as well as the engagement of the Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Body (AWERB).
“It is clear that a ‘culture of care’ at an establishment starts with an expectation of compliance, which must be communicated from the top and must pervade all the work.”
Call for greater openness
While the statistics and the report give an insight into the scale of animal use in Great Britain’s laboratories, it remains extremely difficult for researchers to tease out the true nature of the procedures, due to the secrecy provision within the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. Section 24 of the Act makes it a criminal offence to disclose confidential information and even acts as a bar to sharing “good practice” among labs.
The Home Office has recently consulted on the options for repealing or amending s.24 legislation. While the UK government’s preferred option is to retain some confidentiality, with a specific offence of “malicious” disclosure of information, OneKind and other animal welfare groups have responded to the consultation calling for a simple repeal of an unnecessary layer of secrecy.
Full statistical reports
The Home Office reports are available at:https://www.gov.uk/research-and-testing-using-animals