Brussels (Belgium) 12/12/2013.- Ngo ADDA and he European Coalition to End Animal Experiments (ECEAE) react with disappointment to the figures revealed in the publication of the Seventh Statistical Report by the European Commission which covers data collected by 27 Member States for the year.

The latest statistics show:

• The use of animals for fundamental biological research has increased from 38% to 46% (715,519 animals)

• The increase in the use of mice for fundamental biological studies (16.9% increase – 3,602,370). This is due to the rising number of genetically-modified mice used in research.

• A worrying report that 90 animals were used to test cosmetic substances despite the fact it was banned in 2009.

• Main user countries continue to be France, Germany and the UK constituting 55% of the total number of animals used throughout the EU. Use of animals by Ireland was up 135% (264,990 animals), Czech Republic up by 18% (354,196), Estonia up by 18% (41,035), Latvia up by nearly 10% (10,329).

• Increases included: a 29% increase in fish (1,397,462), 12% increase in horses, donkeys and ponies (6,686) and 75% increase in other carnivores (foxes, badgers, seals, otters and polecats - 4,982) and a 8% increase in rabbits (358,213)

• Numbers of other species used included:** 17,896 dogs** (a 16% decrease) over 8,827,581 rodents (a 7% decrease), 3,713 cats (a 9% decrease) 77,280 pigs (a 17% decrease) and 6,095 non-human primates (a 36% decrease ).

The total number of animals used in 2011 was 11,481,521 which is a 4.3% decrease from 2008 when the statistics were last released. Nonetheless this is not the significant progress for animals in laboratories we expected for and we believe this is likely to be more of a reflection of the economic climate as none of the member countries have a committed strategy for reduction in place.

Source: ECEAE