But animal rights groups say more should be done to reduce those bred with genetic alterations

Scientific procedures involving animals are at their lowest level since 2010, but animal rights groups say the government is not doing enough to reduce the number of animals bred with genetic alterations.

New statistics released by the Home Office show there were almost 3.8m scientific procedures involving animals in 2017, a 4% drop on the previous year. These included 1.89m experiments on live animals – with reasons ranging from legally required drug testing to surgical training.

The latest figures represent a 7% drop in the number of such experimental procedures compared with 2016, and a 17% drop compared with 10 years ago. Last year 5% of the experiments were classed as involving “severe suffering”, with a further 50% classed as mild.



“We are not having lots and lots of very painful experiments going on – we are actually having really quite a small percentage,” said Prof Dominic Wells, chair of the animal sciences group of the Royal Society of Biology. “Most of the severe cases are within the regulatory element – that would be things like toxicology [of drugs]. If you don’t have toxicity [data], you don’t know what the safety limit of that drug is.”

While the number of experiments using primates has fallen 17% since 2016, the report shows a sharp uptick in the use of horses – an 18% increase in the same time period.

Wells said this reflected the reuse of animals, with the number of horses used for the first time in fact having decreased from 373 to 288 in 2017. “That’s because some of these horses are used essentially as blood donors to produce blood products,” he said, noting the practice was similar to the procedure in which blood can be repeatedly taken from humans.



However, 1.9m procedures involved the creation or breeding of genetically altered animals – a 37% uptick over the past decade. Of these animals, 99% were mice, fish or rats.



Why science is being more open about animals in research Read more

The Humane Society International said the figures showed that a 2011 government commitment to reduce the number of animals used in scientific research had been fruitless, and that advice on the efficient breeding of genetically altered animals was simply lip service.

“It is disgraceful that seven years after the UK government’s pledge to reduce animal use in scientific research, the animal body count remains high year-on-year, with no meaningful or effective strategy in place to address the number one cause: out-of-control breeding of engineered animals,” said Troy Seidle, vice president for research and toxicology at the organisation. “Once again, Humane Society International calls on the government to require increased use of cryopreservation – the freezing of sperm or embryos – to short-circuit this appalling breed-kill cycle.”

Experts say the atmosphere around animal research has changed in recent years, largely following the Serious and Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, which strengthened measures for tackling animal rights extremists. The act was introduced the year after a gang dug up the body of an elderly woman whose relatives ran a farm to breed guinea pigs for research.