Fall in animal testing procedures

2014 statistics from the Home Office have shown a 6% decrease in animal testing procedures completed in the UK.

The statistics revealed a total of 3.87 million procedures completed in the UK – 1.94 million were related to genetically modified animals that were not used in any further experiments and the remaining 1.93 million were involved in experimental procedures.

Home Office's chief statistician David Blunt explained to the BBC: “Today's figures indicate the science community continues to respond to the government's firm commitment to adopting measures to replace, reduce and refine animal use.”

The report showed that nearly all breeding of genetically altered animals involved mice (91%), 8% of the procedures were carried out on zebrafish and 1% involved rats. The majority of experimental procedures – 60% – were carried out on mice, 14% on fish, 12% on rats and 7% on birds.

A decrease in experimental procedures involving mice (down 8%) and rabbits (down 8%) could also be observed when comparing with the statistics from 2013.

The 2014 figures are the first ones to reflect the EU policy changes on the way tests are counted. Information is now collected on procedures completed in a given year.

“As a result of the change to counting procedures completed as opposed to procedures started, all procedures started before 2014 but completed in 2014 should be in both the pre-2014 and 2014 figures. Any procedures started in 2014 but completed after 2014 were not included in the 2014 figures. Any impact of the change from counting procedures started to counting procedures completed will be temporary and will disappear from future years’ data collections,” the Home Office report stated.

For more stats:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/469508/spanimals14.pdf