Several of Parliament’s most active and committed supporters of animal welfare, from across the political spectrum, joined us in the House of Commons to learn how a number of outdated and unnecessary animal tests could be ended immediately, through our RAT (Replace Animal Tests) List.
In a productive roundtable discussion, the MPs were shown how six animal tests – which use approximately 80,000 animals every year – are still conducted in the UK despite the availability of appropriate non-animal replacements. The detailed and well-informed session covered what the six tests on animals involve, the barriers to progress, and practical steps for securing an end to the unacceptable practise of testing on animals where replacements are available.
Those present included Steve Race, a member of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee; Alex Mayer, who played a leading role in our petition to the United Nations for a global ban on animal testing for cosmetics, in partnership with The Body Shop, which received eight million signatures to become the largest animal-related petition in history; and Irene Campbell, who Chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Phasing Out Animal Experiments in Medical Research, and led the recent debate on banning testing on dogs.
In recent years, the development of non-animal methods has increased significantly, and they 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 non-animal methods available for assessing skin irritation, skin sensitisation and batch safety have taken years to be adopted and we know that tests on animals are still being conducted to provide this information. This is unacceptable.
In many cases, the problem lies with a lack of clarity from, and enforcement by, regulatory authorities, as well as the absence of a joined-up approach for acceptance of non-animal methods around the world. Since non-animal tests can be cheaper, faster and more accurate than the tests on animals they replace, it is in the interests of animal welfare and good science to speed up their acceptance and to expand their use.
Overcoming these remaining hurdles, so that these tests on animals can finally be fully replaced, is a matter of urgency.
The six tests we discussed were for the assessment of skin irritation, skin sensitisation and eye irritation; routine batch testing of veterinary vaccines; potency testing of Botox samples; and the production of antibodies.
Botox batch testing involves injecting Botulinum toxin into the abdomens of mice. Over three days they become increasingly paralysed, and if left the mice given the higher-level dose will slowly suffocate to death. Approximately half of the mice die during the test and all survivors are killed at the end of the test. Nearly 50,000 of these tests were carried out in the UK in 2023, despite the world’s major Botox manufacturers developing an alternative cell-based test.
For antibody production, animals – including mice, rabbits, sheep, and goats – are used as ‘factories’ to generate large numbers of antibodies. An injection stimulates the animal’s immune system to produce specific types of antibodies – but this often causes harmful side effects before their blood is taken to harvest the antibodies. Animals are killed when they are no longer useful. Phage display technology – awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and endorsed in 2020 by the EU Reference Laboratory for alternatives to animal testing – can be used to produce a wide range of antibodies that are of higher quality, more stable, more relevant and more reproducible than the antibodies produced in animals. They are also much faster and cheaper to produce.
See the full RAT (Replace Animal Tests) List on our website.
Our Head of Public Affairs, Dylan Underhill, said: “People may assume that tests on animals which have non-animal replacements available are no longer conducted, or at least rarely – but the reality is that such tests can continue, and even increase long after the adoption of suitable alternative methods. It was great to see MPs engaging with the issues and statistics behind our RAT List – politicians can play a vital role in overcoming the problems which prevent the adoption of new non-animal tests. This isn’t just about science, it’s about political will too. With the government working on its manifesto commitment to phase-out animal testing, ending these six tests represents a significant but easily-achieved first step towards that aim.”