In 2020, the NVWA, the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority, registered 448,798 animal experiments. With this number, all animals used for research are used. This is a slight increase compared to 2019; then there were 448,656. An increase of 142 animals. According to outgoing minister Carola Scouten of LNV, this means that the number of animal experiments has stabilized in recent years below the limit of 500,000 animal experiments, she writes in a statement. letter to the House of Representatives.

Used more often, but with permission

The increase in the number of animal experiments does not start with the well-known laboratory animals such as mice, rats and rats. The number of experiments with these animals has become equal or even less. However, more frequent use was made of dogs or cats; however, these animals are often used with the permission of the owners. Confirmed blood and swabs were collected for research into the spread of the coronavirus among pets.

These animals have not been kept and killed for long-term research. the number of laboratory animals performed in 2020 has increased by ten percent. This number was still at 442,767 in 2019, and had fallen to 398,036 in 2020.

Furthermore, the number of animal experiments with monkeys in 2020 was also higher than in 2019. Ultimately, 212 monkeys were used for research. From 2025, 120 to 150 monkeys per year may be used until 2020.

Towards animal free

the Transition Animal-Free Innovation project is also underway. In this, science, social movements and government work together to replace animal use with alternative methods. Last month is a advisory report published on parallel studies tested during the pandemic. These are studies in which both laboratory animals and alternatives to laboratory animals are used side by side, to test the animal-free method, as it were.

The report of the Animal Testing Policy Committee (NCad) prescribes, among other things, that researchers already discuss advice before submitting a proposal with methods to discuss alternative tests. In this way, researchers do not simply learn to use animal experiments out of habit, the report outlines.

Open access and more money

There are, however, still some barriers in business that need to be broken down to make the transition a success. That’s not always how business data is, the report says, because companies don’t continue with research as complete that it doesn’t work. This data could be very interesting for further research, to see why it doesn’t work and what can be improved.

A solution for this would be to work more with open access data in business. In addition, the government could cooperate by disqualifying animal testing in cases where good alternatives are available.

There is also a major role for financiers here. Researchers from both companies and research institutes should be given the opportunity to add animal-free methods to research. This helps with the development of these methods and the preparations in the data collection, so that eventually it is also known in the method with which more can be developed.