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More animals used in basic research
The latest EU figures on animal experimentation show that their use in basic research is increasing.
The European Commission has published its fourth report on the numbers and types of animals used in experiments within the EU. This report records the animals used during the year 2002. For the first time, the report was compiled from data submitted by Member States all using the same system for recording the information, which was agreed several years ago.
When the first EU report on the numbers of animal experiments was produced in 1994, the quality of the information was quite varied, with member states submitting data in differing formats and for different years. In some cases the information was incomplete and estimated. Since then, the Commission has worked to ensure that the data was submitted in an agreed, identical format to allow meaningful comparisons between countries and years. Although the same format was used across the board this time, it was not all relating to the same year. France does not collect the information every year and did not have 2002 figures, so they submitted their 2001 data instead.
The 2002 report records that a total of 10.7 million animals were used for experimental and other scientific purposes in the EU. This is an increase on the 9.8 million counted in 1999, but less than the figure of 11.6 million recorded for 1996.
The number of animals used for fundamental research has increased steadily, from 25% in 1996, to 30% in 1999 and 34% in 2002. This is likely to reflect the increasing use of transgenic mice for fundamental biomedical research. The purposes of the other experiments remained roughly the same, with 28% conducted for research and development in human and veterinary medicine, 14% for production and quality control (mostly antisera) and 10% for toxicology testing.
Rodents were the animals most commonly used, comprising three quarters (75.5%) of the total. This is a significant change from 1999, when rodents comprised 84.6%. However, there was a significant increase in the number of fish used, which rose from 6.3% in 1999 to 14.8% in 2002. This appears to reflect a large increase in the study of diseases of fish. In 2002, 80% of experiments on fish were for the study of animal diseases, up from 56% in 1999.
The number of primates used increased from 6,552 in 1999 to 9,270 in 2002. This reflects an increase of about 50% in the use of old-world primates while the number of new-world primates used appears to have dropped significantly. The number of dogs used remained almost unchanged at 21,000 in 2002, but there was a drop in the use of cats, which went from 5,500 in 1999 to 3,800 in 2002.