Speaking of Research prides itself on providing the best coverage of worldwide animal research statistics. Today we add a new country to our list – Finland. Check out our comparison of countries.
Finland’s statistical release complies with the new EU reporting methods on animal research statistics (see the recent UK release). As a result the statistics are split between experimental procedures, and procedures involved in the creation of maintenance of GM animals. We have provided a totals column as well.
Mice accounted for the majority (58%) of animals used, then fish (23%), rats (10%) and birds (3.5%). Together these four types of animals accounted for over 94% of all animal research species – this is similar to other European countries.
The statistics also revealed that most of the experimental procedures were for basic research, with only 2.5% of experimental procedures for regulatory animal testing (mostly on rats and sheep).
The new EU rules also require countries to retrospectively report on severity. Of the experimental procedures (so not including the 50% of breeding procedures), 61.5% were sub-threshold or mild, 30% were moderate, 5% were severe and 3.5% were non-recovery (the animal is never awakened from anaesthetic). If the recent UK statistics are anything to go by, then severe procedures are likely to be a small proportion of the total procedures (as breeding procedures are, on average, less severe).
We congratulate the Finnish authorities for providing easy-to-read information about the numbers of types of animals used in research in 2014. The next few weeks may also see the publication of the statistics of many more EU countries.
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