UK laboratory inspections drop whilst inadequate care of animals continues to rise
The latest annual report from the UK government worryingly reveals that onsite inspections of laboratories carrying out experiments on animals fell from 966 in 2017 to 653 in 2018. This represents a drop of almost one-third over the course of one year.
Inspections of laboratories are vital to ensure that regulations governing the welfare of animals in laboratories are upheld.
The report also contains 28 separate non-compliance cases in laboratories which involved 2680 animals, 100 of whom died as a result. 29% of the cases involved failure to provide adequate food and water
Dr Katy Taylor, our Director of Science and Regulatory Affairs says: “We are alarmed to see a rise in the number of non-compliance cases arising from failure to provide sufficient food or water. This is a basic need and it is shocking to see that such serious mistakes in laboratories are still occurring.
“We will be taking this up with the UK government and calling for action.”
The Animals in Science Regulation Unit annual report for 2018 was released at the end of May.