Millions of animals could be saved every year
Around the world, millions of animals continue to be involved in redundant experiments despite the availability of approved non-animal replacements. Cruelty Free International's Replace Animal Tests (RAT) List highlights which tests are ready to be phased out.
In laboratories in the UK and European Union, 1.29 million tests are conducted on animals using methods which could be replaced by non-animal approaches without compromising quality or safety. The tests – which involve rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, sheep and mice – include botulinum toxin tests (the production of Botox) as well as tests that are used in the manufacture of cosmetics and everyday household products.
Yet these animals could be saved from suffering and even death simply by using existing and proven non-animal testing methods which, in many cases, are more reliable, cheaper and faster than using animals.
Cruelty Free International asks for these tests in UK laboratories to be ended without delay, as part of the government’s promised phase-out of animal testing. Regulatory change to eliminate these tests on animals, regardless of where in the world those tests are conducted, should closely follow.
Many people may assume that these tests are no longer conducted, or at least rarely. The reality is that such tests can persist, and even increase, long after the adoption of suitable alternative methods – when, quite simply, they should be consigned to history.
Over the last 30 years, there have been significant developments in the replacement of tests on animals used to meet legal requirements. Non-animal methods have been developed that can now replace, wholly or in part, a number of tests on animals across several product sectors.
However, our experience has been that actually replacing tests on animals takes much longer than it should. We have seen how valid non-animal methods for assessing skin irritation, skin sensitisation and batch safety have taken years to be accepted, and we know that tests on animals are still being conducted to provide this type of information. This is unacceptable.
In the UK, six tests on our RAT List involve at least 80,000 animals.
For example, the mice used in skin sensitisation tests have a substance applied to their ears for three days to check for any reaction before they are killed and their ears dissected. Instead, computer and cell-based models can be used to evaluate skin sensitisation at least as well as the animal test.
Almost 50,000 mice, at a conservative estimate, die in UK laboratories in the creation of muscle relaxant Botox each year, despite the product’s manufacturers developing their own non-animal test. Mice have botulinum toxin injected into their abdomens and over three days become increasingly paralysed – if they are left, they will eventually suffocate to death. About half of the mice die during the test, and the survivors are still killed after the test is completed.
The Nobel Prize-winning Phage display technology has been endorsed by the EU as a reliable non-animal alternative, but animals, including rabbits and goats, continue to be used in the UK as ‘factories’ to produce large amounts of antibodies through an injection which stimulates their immune system. They often suffer from harmful side effects and are killed when considered no longer useful.
There have been welcome decreases in animal use in UK laboratories for these tests between 2020 and 2023, but there is much more to be done to finally remove barriers to the adoption of non-animal methods and eliminate the unnecessary use of animals.
These barriers include a lack of harmonisation around the world on the sort of test methods accepted by regulators and the requirements set within the regulations themselves; a lack of enforcement in ensuring that the non-animal test is used; a lack of clarity on where and how non-animal approaches can be used; limited availability of equipment; and a lack of expertise in using the non-animal tests. We believe that with focused effort, these barriers can be overcome.
In the interests of animal welfare and good science – as well as to help the government realise its ambitions in growing the UK’s Life Sciences sector as a boost to economic growth and its manifesto commitment to phase out animal testing – non-animal approaches must be adopted faster and used more widely.
Overcoming these remaining hurdles so that these tests on animals can be fully replaced is a matter of urgency.
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