EU reports fall in use of animals for research
The number of animals used in research and testing in the EU fell by 10.9 per cent between 2021 and 2022, official statistics have shown.
In 2022, 8.39 million animals were used for the first time in research and testing in 27 EU countries and Norway, down from 9.41 million in 2021, according to the annual European Commission update.
Despite this move in the right direction, in reality, the numbers of animals used for scientific purposes across the EU has remained relatively unchanged in the last 20 years, since reporting started.
In 2022, 90% of the total were mice, fish, rats and birds, whereas dogs, cats and monkeys account for around 0.23% of the total.
European Animal Research Association (EARA) executive director, Kirk Leech, said: “The EU statistics on animal use in 2022 are still large numbers, but they represent thousands of studies by researchers in Europe to develop vaccines and treatments for diseases, and continue the remarkable progress made to fight cancer and diabetes.”
Around three-quarters (72%) of animal use was for research, including 37% for basic research, while a further 13% was for regulatory use to satisfy legislative requirements, followed by routine production (6%).
According to the EU statistics, the top three EU countries for animal use in 2022 were France (1,829,827 animals), followed by Germany (1,342,404 animals) and Spain (1,047,233 animals).
Separate figures were also produced to record the number of animals that were bred but not used in experiments, this was 9,556,700 across the EU (very similar to when the figures were last published in 2017 9,544,227). These can either be animals that underwent no procedures themselves, such as for breeding purposes; that were the wrong gender for a particular research study; or were an unavoidable surplus from breeding. Find out more here.
Separate figures were also produced to record the number of animals used for the creation and maintenance of genetically altered animal lines. Across the EU-27 (plus Norway) this was 852,145 in 2022 (the EU reported a figure of 909,944 for 2018).