UK condemned as 'animal experiment capital' of Europe

Today, to mark World Lab Animal Week (April 24th-30th) the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) is releasing a dossier of animal suffering, highlighting for the first time specific animal experiments in cities across the UK - Cambridge, Durham, Oxford, Newcastle, Southampton, Manchester - with revelations from London and Edinburgh to follow.

According to Government statistics, the UK is now the largest user of laboratory animals, with the UK's academic institutions now using more animals than the pharmaceutical industry.

World Lab Animal Week is commemorated all over the world. Every year, an estimated 100 million animals suffer and die in experiments in the world's laboratories - nearly 3 million in the UK alone.

TGN1412 Drug Trial Disaster could have been avoided:

This week, during international Lab Animal Week (24-30th), thousands of supporters of the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) will be hitting the streets with leaflets highlighting the recent TGN1412 drug disaster which made healthy volunteers critically ill.

The drug had previously been tested in monkeys without serious side effects, using doses 500 times stronger than those given to the people in the clinical trial. The drug had also been tested in rabbits.

Jan Creamer NAVS Chief Executive: "Animal test results are misleading. We are appalled that human volunteers have suffered unnecessarily when there is a safer method available. TGN1412 could have been tested using micro-dosing, where ultra-low doses of a drug are given and analysed using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS). This replaces animals, avoids the problem of species differences, and is safer for humans. Yet the UK has only one AMS unit."

The NAVS dossier reveals animal suffering in laboratories in the following UK towns:

Cambridge: Marmoset monkeys were used in an attempt to assess the emotional state arising from the anticipation and consumption of desirable foods. Electrodes were inserted into their heart vessels, abdomen, and a toxin injected into the brain, followed by Valium in order to suppress seizures. The animals were filmed scrabbling and gnawing at the window between the test chamber and the visible food. This experiment repeats similar work conducted as early as 1975, despite the fact that similar studies have been conducted on humans. The NAVS finds it disgraceful that in the era of modern technology which enables the study of humans, such barbaric suffering was allowed to continue, funded by public money (MRC "career establishment" grant). (Cambridge University).

Durham and Oxford: Rhesus monkeys were taught tasks (by withholding food) and then parts of their brains were removed to see the effect on their performance of the task. On the days that the animals had to perform their tasks, their only food was the reward for performing the task. The experiment involved multiple brain surgeries. All animals were killed after the experiment, although one died early, but no explanation was given for this. And yet this suffering was unnecessary - not only are the differences between the human and monkey brain already well known, but this was a repeat of a vast number of previous experiments, and human data is available anyway. Human brains can be monitored using imaging technology such as fMRI brain imaging technology and MEG. This research was a waste of public money (UK Medical Research Council). (Oxford and Durham Universities).

Newcastle: Rhesus monkeys were taught to differentiate between different black and white scenes on a TV screen, prior to surgery. Monitoring equipment was then inserted into their eyes and brains. They were strapped into chairs and their heads immobilized to force them to watch black and white images while their brains were monitored. The animals were deprived of water, which was the reward for performing the task. NAVS is appalled to discover that this completely unacceptable level of suffering was simply a repetition of previous studies carried out by the same team, as well as a vast number of other studies worldwide. These experiments were completely unnecessary, as human data is already available, from studies using fMRI brain imaging technology. This barbaric research was partially funded by the EU. (Newcastle University).

Southampton and Oxford: Mice were starved to 85% of their normal weight. Holes were drilled in their and the sheep brain disease, scrapie, was injected. Scrapie is part of the same family of "prion" particles (like viruses) responsible for degenerative brain diseases such as BSE and human CJD. The objective was to see how the disease affected their memory. They performed tasks for a reward of a dose of sweetened condensed milk. However their food had been restricted to such an extent that it had to be increased as it was affecting the experimental results. These exceptionally cruel experiments are a waste of animal life and resources: a) the experiment was another in a series of similar experiments conducted by this group; (b) there are known differences in the way these prions diseases work in different species, and (c) scrapie is a specific sheep disease and there is no evidence of any danger to the human population from scrapie. In fact, experiments such as this where workers in laboratories force diseases across the natural species barrier are far more likely to pose a human health risk, by the creation of a new disease. (Oxford and Southampton universites).

Manchester: Juvenile pigs were sedated and tubes inserted in their lungs and heart vessels, then put into shock by removal of blood. The objective was to study different techniques for monitoring heart and lung status, despite the obvious differences between the heart and circulation of pigs and humans . The technique used has not only previously been reported in animals, but has already been studied in humans. Furthermore the same technology is already in use for patients in critical conditions after major burns, sepsis and during heart transplants. The authors admitted that their study was of limited use and that a clinical study of human patients would produce more meaningful results. (University of Manchester)

NAVS supporters will be wearing their "Unlock the Labs" badges to commemorate the suffering of animals; many will be observing a minute's silence today; and raising funds to save animals and for non-animal research.

Click here for the new leaflet on experiments in UK laboratories :
http://www.navs.org.uk/downloads/lawleaflet06.pdf

NOTES:

· World Lab Animal Week is commemorated all over the world and was founded by NAVS; the day is registered with the United Nations.

· 24 April is the birthday of Air Chief Marshal Hugh, Lord Dowding, of Battle of Britain fame. Lord Dowding was a president of the NAVS and gave many speeches on the issue in the House of Lords during his lifetime.

· For each recorded use of an animal in a laboratory, a further two to three animals have been killed after a miserable short life, simply because they are surplus to requirements.

· Laboratory animals suffer terribly at every stage of their lives; the law allows the infliction of pain and suffering on animals that would, in other circumstances, be illegal.

· The NAVS spends £300,000 a year on grants to scientists conducting non-animal research, and urges the Government to focus on replacements for animal tests, for the sake of both people and animals.

· Founded in 1875, the NAVS is the world's first anti-vivisection group and continues to lead the worldwide campaign for animal experiments to be replaced with sophisticated, non-animal methods.