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Scientists give background to Home Office’s latest report on the numbers of animals used in scientific research in the previous year.
A spokesman for the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), said:
“Animal research is essential if we are to find cures for diseases of high health burden, such as cancers and neurodegenerative disease. Scientists have a responsibility to ensure that animals are used only where there are no valid alternatives and when this is the case, that a high standard of welfare is implemented.
“The rise in the number of animals used for research purposes in 2010 is up 3% across all sectors. However in the last ten years pharmaceutical research and development investment has increased 32% more than the number of animals used for research indicating that the principles of the 3Rs – reduction, replacement and refinement in animal research – have had a positive impact.”
David Pruce, Chief Executive of Understanding Animal Research, said:
“Over the last 15 years, the number of normal animals used in research has gone down. The simple breeding of a genetically modified animal counts as a procedure in the UK. The increased breeding of these animals has skewed the general trend since 1995.
“The money spent on biomedical research as a whole has doubled over the same period, while animal procedures have only increased by one third. So the efforts to reduce animal use wherever possible are effective. We are pleased to see that the numbers of cats, dogs, horses and monkeys in research decreased in 2010.
“GM mice and fish provide great medical insights. They help us to understand heart failure, develop new treatments such as Herceptin for breast cancer, and get a better insight into Alzheimer’s and how to treat it. At the end of the day, researchers don’t want to use animals, they do want to help patients.”
Lord Willis of Knareborough, Chair of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC), said:
“Our Member Charities are dedicated first and foremost to medical research and finding solutions to long term often debilitating or life threatening conditions. Animals are only used where deemed absolutely necessary and their use is rigorously regulated by UK legislation – which is the toughest in the world. The AMRC and its Members will continue to strive to find new ways of carrying out medical research and will only endorse the use of animals where no alternative is available – a position supported by the overwhelming majority of our Members who last year donated over a £1bn to fund ground breaking research.”
Prof Dominic J. Wells, Neuromuscular Disease Group, Royal Veterinary College, said:
“Why do we have an increase year on year in the number of GM animals and particularly in the number being bred ? Part of the answer is that we have got better at making more precise models that tell us about gene function or better models for human disease. But also it’s worth noting that a lot of those animals that are bred and are counted as genetically modified show no adverse phenotype whatsoever.
“One of the reasons that we bred more mice than in the past is because we have refined our procedures. Instead of creating animals that are adversely affected by the genetic modifications, we will very often keep two lines of mice, neither of which show an adverse phenotype until they are crossed. You can therefore generate precisely the number that you need in order to conduct that experiment. By breeding two lines we increase the number of animals used but we decrease the overall severity of what we’re doing.”
Roger Morris, Professor Of Molecular Neurobiology, King’s College London, said:
“As a scientist, I and most of my colleagues welcome the EU now bringing standards across Europe up to the level that we have enjoyed in Britain for all these years. We are proud of our standards, , we are proud of the way we go about our experiments and the fact that the animals do not suffer in almost all situations. That has not been the case worldwide and we, as scientists, are very pleased to see UK standards of animal care expand through Europe.
“Ninety per cent of my work is done with individual molecules and cells in culture. But real diseases are diseases of the whole body, and can only be studied in the whole body. To take the example of Parkinson’s – a disease that is very common and devastating. Part of this disease is a dopamine deficiency in the neurons, but the underlying cause is a complex set of interactive problems, that probably involves an inflammatory or autoimmune component. Thus we need to understand the interaction between two very complex bodily systems – the brain, and the immune system, to understand the defects causing this multi–tissue, multi–step disease. We can’t study that in tissue culture of individual cells.
“Why are we using transgenic mice and zebra fishes models? People in terminal stages of the disease readily offer themselves for trial treatment of new drugs. A substantial amount of work in cancer and in neurodegeneration is done on volunteers at the emd stages of disease. But what use is that, for instance with Parkinson’s Disease? What we need to know is can we detect whether you are going to have Parkinson’s and can we do something about it at the early, pre-symptomatic stages of the disease before a large amount of your brain is destroyed and we cannot get it back. For that we have the animal models. WE use animal models to study the early stages of the disease, to develop early diagnosis and treatment before irreparable damage is done. There is negligible suffering in any of these animal models at these early stages, and the animals are killed by a terminal anaesthetic before the disease progresses. Real suffering is done by the people who have to go through to the end stage of the disease.
“Why don’t we use people? We do. Why don’t we use molecules? We do. But there is an absolute essential link between the two: the work on animals. That we do under very controlled conditions and we who do it have the welfare of animals very much at heart.”
Sir John Savill, Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council, said:
“The use of animals in medical research remains absolutely essential. Animal research is an integral part of understanding how basic systems of the body work and what goes wrong with them to cause disease. Most modern medicine and surgery exists because of animal research. When we fund animal research, we do so knowing that all the alternatives have been exhausted and our scientists are subject to the world’s strictest regulations. We support those charities, universities and institutions that abide by the strict ethical and legal framework for use of animals in research – we know their work has helped make advances in some of the biggest health challenges of today and will ultimately save lives.”