Testing on live animals fell by 10% last year, data suggests

The number of scientific procedures carried out on live animals last year fell by 10%, new data shows.

Across Great Britain some 2.76 million tests were carried out on animals in 2022 – down from 3.06 million – representing the lowest number since 2002.

Data from the Home Office shows that experimental procedures (1.51 million) fell by 12% and made up 55% of all procedures last year.

Read full article at:

Testing on live animals fell by 10% last year, data suggests (yahoo.com)

Regards Mark

European scientists continue to support an EU roadmap to accelerate the transition to non-animal science

10 July 2023

In the space of a week, 80 European scientists from 14 EU countries have signed an open letter calling on the European Commission and Member States to commit to establishing an EU roadmap to accelerate the transition to non-animal science.

The transition to non-animal science can offer more effective and accurate humane solutions for biomedical research and regulatory testing, and has been acknowledged by the European Commission, EU agencies, the cosmetics, chemical, pharmaceutical and healthcare industries, the consumer goods sector, and academia as an important step in tackling the health and environmental issues that threaten society today. This transition is overwhelmingly supported by Members of the European Parliament and EU citizens, and is in line with the European Union’s objective to fully replace the use of animals in science.

To achieve improved human health and environmental protection, it is essential to coordinate EU efforts and policies that facilitate and prioritise the transition to non-animal science in all EU research, innovation and education initiatives. Clear short-, medium-, and long-term actions are needed to guide and accelerate the adoption of innovative non-animal approaches while phasing-out animal-based methods. In addition, a coordinated European Research Area (ERA) initiative can revolutionise the scientific landscape by supporting innovation, research infrastructure, and knowledge sharing to train and inspire scientists, educators, students and regulators in the use of non-animal approaches.

The undersigned call on the European Commission and the Member States to establish an EU roadmap and launch an ERA action. This initiative should include concrete milestones, cross-sector support, open science principles, dedicated funding and harmonised education and training initiatives to accelerate the transition to non-animal research, regulatory testing and education.

If you are an EU academic or scientist and wish to sign this open letter, please follow this link.

List of signatories: 

Name:	Position:	Affiliation:	Country:	Suggestions:
Martin Paparella	Senior Researcher	Medical University Innsbruck	Austria
Bernard GODELLE	University professor	University of Montpellier	France
Penny Nymark	Assistant Professor	Karolinska Institutet	Sweden	In parallel with development of non-animal methods, known as New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) within chemical risk assessment, it is also paramount that all generated data in science is made Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR)! Besides being a non-animal method in itself, reuse of data is the only way we can move into an era of machine-driven and AI-supported predictive chemical risk assessment without the reliance on animal testing.
Pranjul Shah	Head of the Incubator	University of Luxembourg	Luxembourg
Mario Rothbauer	Group Leader	Medical University of Vienna – Dpt. Ortho Trauma Surgery	Austria
Dania Movia	Assistant Professor	Trinity College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
Prof. Dr. Stefan Dübel	Head, Dept. of Biotechnology	Technische Universität Braunschweig	Germany
Ashwani Sharma	Co-founder	Insight Biosolutions	France	Hello, I agree that we need alternative methods than animal testing as using like human in vitro models can give better results than animal testing.
Janneke Hogervorst, PhD	Postdoctoral researcher	Hasselt University	Belgium	For many areas of research, animal testing is known to have very limited validity. We don’t need to first develop non-animal methods there; we should just end animal experiments there right now and spend our limited resources on other research. We need more systematic reviews into the validity of animal experiments, rather than treat animal experiments as the gold standard that we need to find replacements for. Ending what doesn’t work is innovation too.
Love Hansell	PhD Researcher	Radboud University	Sweden
Bas van Balkom	Asst Professor	UMC Utrecht	The Netherlands
Margherita Scarpa	Engeneer	Institut Jacques Monod	France
Federica Emiliani	Lecturer	InHolland University of Applied Sciences	The Netherlands	Investing even more in in vitro/silico modelling
Birgit Goversen	Postdoctoral researcher	Amsterdam UMC	The Netherlands	– More funds for the improvement of current NAMs – A focus on understanding, supporting and convincing stakeholders; not on forcing them to use NAMs
Merel Ritskes-Hoitinga	Prof. in Evidence-Based Transition to Animal-Free Innovations	Utrecht University	The Netherlands	Setting goals is key, just like we do for the economy. The science and technology ARE here to move to non-animal science. By teaming up with social sciences and key stakeholders we can accelerate and strive towards ending animal testing by 2035.
Rosalinde Masereeuw	Full professor	Utrecht University	The Netherlands	Make sure everybody is on-board, we can only make the transition together.
Mathieu Vinken	ONTOX coordinator/university professor	Vrije Universiteit Brussel	Belgium
Koen Kramer	Researcher animal ethics	Wageningen University & Research	The Netherlands
AC van Veen	Postdoc	Radboud University	The Netherlands
Tuula Heinonen	Professor	Tampere University	Finland	Regulators give acceptance criteria for approving non-animal methods to predict safety (all chemicals) for all end points and efficacy (drugs)
Julia D Zajac	Project manager	Vrije Universiteit Brussel	Belgium
Sonja von Aulock	Editor in chief, CEO	ALTEX – Alternatives to Animal Experimentation	Germany
Tobias Theska	PhD Student	Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen	Germany
Ingeborg Eva Reihs	Doctoral candidate	Medical University of Vienna	Austria	More specific funding for absolute animal-free and clean science, method establishment. Awards for absolute animal-free approaches and more critical thinking about so-called animal-free research.
Alicia Paini	Senior Toxicologist	esqLABS GmbH	Italy
Eliska Kuchovska	postdoctoral researcher	IUF – Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine	Germany
Marina Garcia de Lomana	Research Scientist	Bayer AG	Germany
Job Berkhout	PhD Student	UU, RIVM	The Netherlands
Domenico Gadaleta	Scientific Consultant	Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri – IRCCS	Italy
Katharina Koch	Postdoctoral Researcher	IUF – Leibniz-Research Institute for Environmental Medicine	Germany	More interaction between researchers, the regulatory bodies and the industry. ECHA for example! More case studies supported by the regulatory bodies and indurtry. More guidance on the use of PBTK in POD estimation.
Erwin L Roggen	CEO and WP6 leader of the ONTOX project	3Rs Management and Consulting ApS	Denmark	Willingness to change and courage to embrace innovation in practice, not only words.
Ellen Fritsche	Professor	DNTOX GmbH	Germany	Establish case studies involving different stakeholders and compare classical risk assessment to NAM-based risk assessment.
Helena Kandarova	ESTIV President, Director of UEFT CEM SAS	ESTIV and Slovak Academy of Science	Slovakia	Please try to harmonize legistlation accorst various sectors so that animal testing is not requested in areas, where replacements are availabe (e.g. medical devices, pesticides, pharmaceuticals)
Alessio Gamba	Postdoc researcher	VPH institute and University of Liege	Belgium
Jeffrey Bajramovic	Director 3Rs Centre Utrecht	Utrecht University	The Netherlands
PD Dr.-Ing. Joachim Wiest	Adjunct professor	Technical University of Munich	Germany
Nicolas Bayer	Master Student	RPTU Kaiserslautern	Germany	ethically based funding!!!
Christiane Spruck	PhD student	IUF	Germany
Florian Caiment	Associate Professor	Maastricht University	The Netherlands
Andreas Schiwy	PostDoc, Teamleader	Goethe University	Germany	The advancement of chemical defined media for culture of cells, replacement of animal derived products like fetal bovine serum as well as rat liver S9 with biotechnological alternatives. The development of physiological media to sustain cell lines that show similar reaction compared to the human body.
Liliana Moreira Teixeira	Assistant professor	University of Twente	The Netherlands
busuqet	ceo	altertox	Belgium
John Grin	Full professor in the governance of transitions	University of Amsterdam	The Netherlands
Huub Schellekens	Emeritus Professor	Utrecht University	The Netherlands
Esther Wenzel	COO	Abcalis GmbH	Germany
Tamara Vanhaecke	Professor	Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Faculty of Medicine & Pharmacy	Belgium
Maria Tsamou	Chief Scientific Officer	ToxGenSolutions	The Netherlands
Emilio Benfenati	Head of Department	Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri	Italy
Wouter Dhert	Professor and Scientific Director Innovation in Life Sciences	Utrecht University	The Netherlands
Daniela Salvatori	Professsor Anatomy and Physiology, Chairperson Animal-free Innovation Utrecht University	Utrecht University	The Netherlands	Education (interprofessioanl education) and creation of a community able to go through the necessary changes
Hanna Dusza	Postdoctoral researcher	Utrecht University	The Netherlands
Annalisa Gastaldello	Project Officer	European Commission	Italy
Konstantina	PhD student	VU Amsterdam	The Netherlands	Allocating funds to research aimed at developing in vitro methods modeling animal testing.
Jakob (Jaap) Heringa	Professor Bioinformatics	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	The Netherlands	FAIR data infrastructure; Digital twin
Jos Joore	CEO	Mimetas	The Netherlands
Victoria Marincheva	Assist. Prof.	University of Forestry Sofia	Bulgaria
Iliyan Manev	Assos. Prof. in Immunology	Faculty of Veterinary medicine, University of Forestry	Bulgaria
Eckhard von Keutz	Consultant	Independent	Germany	A concrete working plan which contains the deliverables and the associated timelines. Leadership and commitment are needed to execute on the roadmap.
Jiayi Yang	PhD candidate	Utrecht University	The Netherlands
Silvia Scaglione	Chief Scientist, President of React4life	React4life	Italy
Kamile Jovaisaite	Scientific Sales Representative	STEMCELL Technologies	The Netherlands
Madalena Cipriano	Senior Scientist	University of Tübingen	Germany
Benoît Maisonneuve	CSO	NETRI	France	4 steps are necessary IMO: 1 – funding to develop and validate NAMs with clinical data, 2 – access to the clinical data (usually confidential), 3 – a regulatory framework to develop NAMs, and of course 4 – a legislative evolution of the European regulation (concerning drug developement etc) similar to what has been done in the USA and in India.
Luiz Ladeira	Postdoctoral researcher	Liège Université	Belgium
Erwin L Roggen	CEO	ToxGenSolutions BV	The Netherlands	Wiilingness and confidence based on scientific data in stead of believe.
Eva Bernet Kempers	postdoctoral researcher	University of Antwerp	Belgium
Line Mathiesen	Associate Professor	University of Copenhagen	Denmark
Ellen Fritsche	Prof.	IUF	Germany
Costanza Rovida	Scientific Officer	CAAT-Europe	Germany
Christian Maass	Principal Scientist, Lead Digital Organ-on-Chip Platform	esqLABS	Germany	Coordination with roadmap on standardization from CEN/CENELEC
Timea Gandek	Phd student	University of Groningen	The Netherlands
Ramiro Jover	Professor	University of Valencia	España
Kathrin Herrmann	Senior Associate	Johns Hopkins University Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT)	Germany
Rafael Gozalbes	CEO	ProtoQSAR SL	SPAIN
Arno Gutleb	Managing Director	INVITROLIZE sarl	Luxembourg
Hubert Dirven	Department Director Chemical toxicology	Norwegian Institute of Public Health	Norway	Legislation for chemicals need to be revised
Dr Brett A. Lidbury	Associate Professor	NCEPH – The Australian National University	Australia	We need a centre like ECVAAM to support non-animal innovation for biomedical research.
Thomas Luechtefeld	CEO	ToxTrack Inc	United States
James Rathman	Professor	Ohio State University	USA
Yanitza Trosel	Researcher	Sunnybrook Research Institute	Canada	Start using mimic organ environments to test more basic system, then start increasing the complexity.
Pandora Pound	Research Director	Safer Medicines Trust	UK
Brigitte Franke-Bray	Independent Consultant Pharmaceutical Medicine	Freelance	Switzerland
Pelin Candarliogu	Independent Consultant on the use of NAMS	3D and 3Rs	UK	Standardisation guidelines followed with a qualification framework for specific context of use and independent test centres that will evaluate and qualify different NAMs for regulatory acceptance
Dr Lilas Courtot	Science Manager	Animal Free Research UK	United-Kingdom
Francesca Pistollato	Senior Strategist – Biomedical science	HSI Europe	Italy	The transition towards human-relevant non-animal methods and models will help increase societal impact of funded research, in order to make scientific results really useful and translatable to human diseases and physiology.
Manuela Cassotta	Biologist Medical writer	OSA (Oltre la Sperimentazione Animale)	Italy
Dr. Christiane Hohensee	Subject specialist for Animal-free Research Methods	Federal Association ip People for Animal Rights	Germany

Regards Mark

ECHA workshop highlights commitment to animal-free regulatory system for industrial chemicals

9 June 2023

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) hosted a two day workshop to hear feedback from regulators, industry, academia, and environmental and animal protection organisations on how to accelerate the transition to a chemicals regulatory system free from animal testing.

The workshop’s main objectives were to explore opportunities to increase the use of NAMs in the short term and how research and regulation can support the transition in the longer term, to identify next steps to accelerate the transition to non-animal testing.

The event successfully engaged 500 attendees following other recent key developments, including the unprecedented success of the European Citizens Initiative “Save Cruelty-Free Cosmetics —Commit to a Europe without animal testing“, which received more than 1.2 million validated signatures in January 2023. Subsequently, meetings between the ECI organisers, the European Commission and Members of the European Parliament took place to discuss the ECI’s three objectives. These events built on the majority support received in 2021 from the European Parliament, which led to a resolution calling on the European Commission to coordinate a plan to accelerate the transition to innovation without the use of animals in research, regulatory testing, and education.

At the end of the event, 75% of attendees felt ‘more confident’ that animal testing can be replaced with non-animal methods and that increasing confidence in these methods is critical to transition to an animal-free chemicals safety testing system. ECHA closed the event by remarking on the community’s strong commitment to move towards animal-free chemical safety assessments, the different understanding of NAMs among stakeholders, and the importance of having goals and concrete milestones to make progress. This aligned with earlier remarks from the European Commission (DG Environment) to identify ‘critical milestones along the way’.

However, presentations from DG Environment on short-term planned actions under the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability showed that – despite some efforts to adopt non-animal methods – the revisions of REACH and CLP will still lead to an increase in the use of animal testing for new purposes, and suggestions from the Commission’s scientists (DG JRC) to avoid new tests have not been fully taken into consideration at this stage.

Eurogroup for Animals will continue its efforts to build support for concrete actions and next steps on the roadmap from the European Commission, to ensure an active transition towards animal-free regulatory testing and scientific innovation.

Regards Mark

Check out our very recent post relating to the possible re introduction of animal testing:

UK: A Disgusting Government – The government has allowed animal testing for makeup ingredients to resume despite a 25-year ban. So People Campaign and Fight For What ?

With the general election maybe a year or so away; the government needs to listen and act to the wishes of the people.  ? The live animal export ban – will this also become law in the very near future ? – animals have friends, and those friends have votes !

Rishi Sunak on Thursday categorically ruled out watering down Britain’s ban on animal testing for cosmetic products for consumers.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “It’s important that the public are reassured here.

“The ban on using animals to test cosmetic products or ingredients for the consumer remains completely in force.

“There are absolutely no plans to change that.

“It also remains the case that it is unlawful for any business to sell cosmetic products or their ingredients that have been tested for the consumer on animals. “So to be crystal clear this is never going to happen.

“Any changes in EU law on this will not impact our position.

Related video: Animal Testing For Makeup In The UK Continues After 25-Year Ban (unbranded – Newsworthy)

“We will take the necessary steps to ensure this is the case.

“There will be no weakening on our position on animal testing and indeed we have some of the highest animal welfare standards and are exploring ways to enhance our position as a leader on animal welfare.”

It came after the High Court last week ruled ministers were acting lawfully when they changed a policy on animal testing to align with EU chemical rules.

In 2020 the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), an EU agency which oversees chemical regulation, ruled that companies needed to test some ingredients used in cosmetics on animals to ensure they were safe for workers manufacturing the ingredients.

Manufacturers still cannot undertake any animal testing to check the safety of the makeup for consumers. This should be done using other methods.

The move led to criticism from campaigners “dismayed”at the government’ apparently allowing animal testing for makeup ingredients.

Animal rights groups feared this would lead to the resumption of testing in the UK.

But today a spokesperson for Mr Sunak said this was not the case.

Animal testing for cosmetics won’t resume in the UK, says Rishi Sunak (msn.com)

Regards Mark

World Day for Animals in Laboratories: EU citizens want to move towards non-animal science

24 April 2023

DAAE

On this World Day for Animals in Laboratories (WDAIL), Eurogroup for Animals and its members join EU citizens in calling on the European Commission to step up its efforts to move towards more human-relevant and innovative non-animal science.

EU legislation on animals in science sets the ultimate goal of replacing all animals used for scientific and educational purposes with non-animal approaches. Yet, millions of animals continue to be used every year in research, testing, and education. In the EU and Norway alone, over 7.9 million animals were used for scientific purposes in 2020. 

In this context, EU citizens continue to express their dissatisfaction with what they see as insufficient action to move towards non-animal science. After the first successful European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) Stop Vivisection in 2015, the recently closed ECI Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics – Commit to a Europe without Animal Testing, has again collected over one million signatures. It calls on the European Commission to end the harmful use of animals in cosmetics and other chemical tests, and to put forward a concrete plan to transition to non-animal science. 

EU-wide support for ending animal testing is also clearly demonstrated by a recent opinion poll conducted in the EU Member States with the highest number of animals used for scientific purposes. In particular, the survey showed that 77% of EU citizens agree that the European Commission and its Member States should develop a coordinated strategy to transition to scientific research, testing, and education without the use of animals. 

Over the past year, there have been several highlights of how advanced non-animal strategies can be more effective in tackling human disease and assessing chemical safety. For instance, at the European Society for Alternatives to Animal Testing (EUSAAT) congress, several of our members and other participants presented positive developments in scientific areas where non-animal approaches can become the new norm. Additionally, the Commission’s Joint Research Centre published several reports describing advanced non-animal models in different disease areas with a view of accelerating the development of these technologies. Last October, experts from EU agencies, industry and academia also informed the Intergroup on the Welfare and Conservation of Animals of innovative non-animal solutions for regulatory purposes.

Today, we also highlight recent successes of several of our member organisations in advancing human-based science:

Doctors Against Animal Experiments (DAAE) recently won the Lush Prize 2022 in the Education and Training category for their Non Animal Technologies (NAT)-database, and launched the “AFA-net”, a network of researchers working in the field of non-animal-derived antibodies. Last year, they also exposed the severe suffering of non-human primates used in brain research in Germany, and they will continue to campaign to end this practice. On WDAIL, for example, DAAE are planning actions in 14 different German cities focusing on brain research using non-human primates.

LAV funded an in silico research project at the University of Parma focused on predicting mutations of the Covid-19 spike protein. They also persuaded the Italian Ministry of Health to financially support 16 public institutes to develop research projects using alternatives to animal testing. This year, LAV will continue to campaign for increased public funding for non-animal methods, and to take legal action against specific research projects involving non-human primates.

La Fondation Droit Animal, Ethique et Sciences (LFDA) has started to chair the Advisory board of the recently created French 3R centre (FC3R). They also recently participated in a conference on alternative methods to animal testing to explain their actions in this field. For instance, this year, the LFDA will award their 14th Prize of Biology Alfred Kastler for the development of a replacement method to animal testing. 

The RSPCA commissioned a poll which showed that 77% of UK citizens agree that ‘the UK Government should commit to ‘phasing out’ the use of animals in scientific research and testing’. They also raised awareness among political parties and Members of Parliament to commit to a strategy for phasing out animal experiments. Last year, the RSPCA also organised several events on ending severe suffering in animals used in science, as well as training, workshops, and presentations on how to create a ‘Culture of Care’ within establishments that use animals for scientific research and testing. This year, the RSPCA will continue to advance their two priorities: ending severe suffering for lab animals, and achieving a global commitment to phasing out animal experiments. On WDAIL, for example, they are planning a press release to promote their explainatory video on the latter.

Regards Mark

4 April 2023

A new poll, carried out by Savanta ComRes in 8 EU countries last November, reveals the public’s concerns about the use of animals in research, testing and education.

In particular, the survey highlights the need to do more to accelerate the full replacement of animals used for scientific purposes, and to move towards animal-free science and innovation.

The poll revealed that: 

73% agree that they are very concerned about the use of animals in scientific research, testing and education. 

76% agree that more needs to be done to accelerate the full replacement of animal experiments in scientific research, testing and education. 

77% agree that the European Commission and its Member States should develop a coordinated strategy to transition to scientific research, testing, and education without the use of animals.

75% also agree that the European Union should be a global leader in moving towards science and innovation without the use of animals.

A similar percentage is found among Finnish citizens, according to a 2021 opinion poll conducted by Taloustutkimus, which shows that 78% of Finns agree that animal testing should gradually be replaced by non-animal methods.

The results of these surveys reinforce the public’s strong desire to move away from animal testing as illustrated by the recent European citizens’ initiative “Save Cruelty Free Cosmetics – Commit to a Europe Without Animal Testing” which gathered over 1.2 million signatures, and passed the minimum threshold in no less than 21 EU Member States. It also echoes the 2021 European Parliament’s resolution, which calls on the European Commission to coordinate together with Member States a concrete plan to accelerate the transition to non-animal testing.

Other European countries, such as Switzerland and Norway, also support a transition to non-animal science, with the new poll showing that 68% of Swiss and 64% of Norwegians agree that their country should commit to transition to scientific research, testing, and education without the use of animals.

Recognising the scientific and ethical concerns associated with animal-based research, several European countries have in recent years declared their intention to reduce and replace the use of animals in science. The Netherlands has a well-defined and transparent initiative in place to transition to non-animal science. The new German government is committed to implementing a strategy to reduce animal experiments, and promote research on non-animal methods. In 2021, and the Flemish Parliament launched a project to develop an action plan to reduce the use of animals for scientific purposes. In the same year, the Swedish 3Rs Centre published a preliminary strategy to limit the use of animals in research, testing and teaching, as requested by the Swedish Government. In 2020, the Norwegian National Experimental Animals Committee proposed a series of steps to develop a concrete plan for a transition to non-animal science. 

Given the massive EU-wide support for moving towards non-animal science and the impressive toolbox of advanced non-animal approaches increasingly at our disposal across a number of area, the EU has the ingredients needed to increase its ambition and efforts to transition to non-animal science.

Download the country infographics:

EU overview

Belgium

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French

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Denmark

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Danish

France

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Germany

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Italian

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The Netherlands

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Norway

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Norwegian

Spain

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Sweden

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Switzerland

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Download the full survey

Full survey

Regards Mark