NIBSC - Number and type of animals

To support our mission to improve and protect public health, some of our work necessitates the use of animals. We follow the principles of the 3Rs that aim to replace, reduce and refine animal use, and animals are only used when an appropriate alternative cannot be found.

Number of animals used

The below table provides information on the number of animals used, per species, from 2014 to 2020.

Year	Mice	Rats	Guinea Pigs	Rabbits	Ferrets	Non-human primates (NHPs)	Sheep	Turkeys	Alpacas	Hamsters	Total
2020	5042	760	32	10	2	33	35	11	2	30	5957
2019	9099	1254	32	3	20	25	27	12	0	0	10472
2018	8130	880	28	0	36	28	19	10	2	0	9133
2017	8990	245	60	0	104	20	13	12	2	0	9446
2016	8924	760	334	0	80	8	20	11	0	0	10137
2015	8353	2638	366	21	77	11	30	7	0	0	11503
2014	12304	1935	236	46	97	28	27	10	0	0	14683

These figures are submitted to the Home Office, who publish annual statistics on the use of animals in scientific research in Great Britain. The Home Office generally publishes their data for the previous year in July.

Type of animals used

When designing a study, our staff will carefully consider the most suitable model to use. If animals are used, scientists aim to select the most clinically relevant type of animal, so it might experience the same illnesses or respond in a similar way to infection as humans. This guarantees that the results of each study performed at NIBSC provide the most value to global health.

Our work mostly involves small rodents and in 2020 over 97% animals used were mice and rats. Mice and rats are often used to test the safety and efficacy of vaccines before they are used in national and global immunisation programmes. These tests are legally required before a medicine can be released onto the market and used in humans.

In some situations, mice and rats are not suitable and larger animals may need to be used. For example, ferrets, sheep and turkeys are important for producing seasonal flu vaccines as they are used to prepare vital reference materials. These materials support manufacturers to make new vaccines each winter to protect people from the ever-changing and often life-threatening flu virus.

The use of non-human primates, such as macaques and tamarins, is only undertaken when there is no other valid alternative. Non-human primates are used to support some of our essential research into complex and deadly viruses such as HIV and Zika.

Reasons why the number of some animals increased in 2020

We are committed to reducing, replacing, and refining animal use. In 2020, there was a reduction in the number of several species used when compared to the previous year and these included rodents and ferrets. Depending on the research undertaken numbers can vary year on year, and in 2020 the total number of animals used was 56.9% lower when compared to the previous year. While the decrease was due to putting some work on hold temporarily during the coronavirus pandemic restrictions, there were some increases in animal usage across areas of new critical work required to support the coronavirus pandemic response, and other urgent public health priorities. Increases in some of the species are outlined below:

The use of rabbits and sheep fluctuates over the lifetime of the projects. In 2020, antisera from rabbits were required for the development of new reagents. Similarly, new and replacement antisera from sheep were needed to support vaccine manufacture across the two global influenza seasons.
Chikungunya is a viral disease transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes and there have been explosive outbreaks in the Americas and countries bordering the Indian Ocean and even establishing itself in parts of southern Europe. These outbreaks have triggered renewed interest in the development of new vaccines to treat local affected populations. The study at NIBSC which involved macaques was to evaluate whether a candidate vaccine generated antibodies in the blood of clinical trial volunteers that would protect against subsequent exposure to the virus. We found that this was indeed the case, thereby providing another step forward for the candidate vaccine to becoming licensed.
Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, there was unprecedented, urgent demand to identify animal models for vaccine and therapeutics development and assessment. We were able to conduct a comparative evaluation of the virus in macaques, marmosets and tamarins as well as hamsters. These results showed that hamsters were both highly susceptible to infection and disease and so a suitable model for future evaluation of antibody responses as a measure of vaccine success, thus, minimising the need to use non-human primates (NHP’s) for future studies.
The increased usage of two alpacasin 2020 was to support COVID-19 research through the isolation of nanobodies. Nanobodies are small antibody fragments produced by alpaca white blood cells. These nanobodies can recognise different part of SARS-Cov2 virus and neutralise the virus in infected patients.
The use of guinea pigs was related to a requirement for confirming the potency of therapeutic diphtheria antitoxin. This testing is done periodically as part of monitoring stockpiles of emergency medicines for DHSC and international regulatory and public health authorities.

Replacing, reducing and refining animal use (the 3Rs principles)

Our scientists develop non-animal tests to check the quality and safety of biological medicines and provide evidence and advice to encourage their use by organisations worldwide. For example, we’ve helped introduce alternative methods for testing polio vaccines, greatly reducing the use of non-human primates.

Find out more about our work to replace, reduce and refine animal use.