More animals being used in Swiss research

Scientific experiments using animals have been climbing: in 2015, 682,000 animals were used in Swiss research, a 12.5% increase over 2014. Experiments involving high levels of stress for the animal subjects are also on the rise. Switzerland’s federal veterinary office said in a statement on Thursday that the increase in animal experiments was linked to studies involving large herds of animals and to species conservation projects. According to the data (in French), fish (+23,000 compared with 2014), amphibians (+25,000), genetically modified mice (+22,000) and poultry (+11,000) have been used in particular for these kinds of studies. In Switzerland, the degree of stress inflicted on research animals is measured on a scale from zero (none) to three (high-stress). The chart below shows the stress levels for research animals in 2015.  Nearly two-thirds of animal experiments in 2015 were done for basic biological research. In the field of medical ...