Animal experiments: definition, necessity and ethical considerations

What is an animal experiment?

In Switzerland, external page animal welfare legislation defines what is considered an animal experiment. Any use of animals in the interest of finding answers to a scientific question, testing a substance or assessing the impact of a procedure is classified as an animal experiment. The same applies when animals are used for education and training purposes and when genetically modified animals are generated or bred. It is irrelevant whether the animal is aware of being used. Not only laboratory rodents are used in animal experiments. Observations of wild animals conducted to investigate a scientific question, for example, are also considered animal experiments.

Moreover, obtaining cells, organs or body fluids from animals is also classified as an animal experiment unless this is carried out as part of agricultural practice. This also applies to the use of by-products from agriculture for scientific purposes.

The external page legislation covers all vertebrates, external page crustaceans and cephalopods (including squid) in addition to numerous unborn stages of development. It covers the last third of the gestation or breeding period of mammals, birds and reptiles. In the case of fish and amphibians, it covers all independently feeding larval forms. All experiments with these animals in these stages of development are subject to authorisation, thus require a licence from the cantonal veterinary office.

Why conducting animal experiments?

Humans and other animals are very biologically similar. For instance, humans share approximately 95 percent of their genes with mice, one of the most commonly used laboratory animals. Where legislation and ethical considerations prohibit experiments on humans, animals serve as viable alternatives to allow conclusions to be drawn about humans.

Animals themselves can also be the focus of scientific interest, such as in veterinary medicine or basic biological research. There are a large number of research areas that rely on animal testing to provide answers to research questions:

When is animal testing justified?

As most answers to this question are largely subjective, it remains a contentious issue. Animal experiments are evaluated through a harm-benefit analysis, which involves comparing the anticipated level of distress suffered by the animal with the gain in knowledge expected. Researchers seeking to conduct animal experiments must carefully consider these points and provide arguments supporting their position as part of the authorisation process. Key considerations include:

• The expected gain in knowledge and its significance for research and society
• The level of suffering experienced by the animals involved
• The indispensability of the animal experiment due to the lack of alternative methods, for example

These arguments create a basis on which several people can agree, even though they may hold different views. Nevertheless, the harm-benefit analysis remains inherently subjective due to the challenge of quantifying the factors being assessed. For this reason, decisions regarding the authorisation of potentially harmful animal experiments are not made by a single individual but by a cantonal animal experimentation commission. An animal experiment is classified as being justified if the gain in knowledge that is expected to result outweighs the amount of animal suffering caused.