More than one million animals are used across the EU in tests to assess the safety of products such as new medicines, pesticides and industrial chemicals.
Over the last five years, the proportion of non-animal test methods developed and accepted into formal test guidelines (OECD) has only slightly increased, from 19.6 per cent to 22.4 per cent. Between 2005 and 2009 only four non-animal tests have been added to the guidelines whilst seven new animal tests have been included.
Depressingly, the use of animals still seems to be the first choice when developing new tests. Even more effort is needed to develop non-animal test methods and accelerate their worldwide acceptance as alternatives to methods using animals.
For more information, read the 'non-animal methods' animal welfare indicator.
