According to this, the number of animals used in experiments and the number of animals killed for scientific purposes will have fallen to a total of 1.95 million by 2024. Compared to 2023 (around 2.1 million), this represents a decline of 8.2 percent. The number of vertebrates and cephalopods used alone fell by nine percent to 1.33 million animals. Fifty-seven percent of the animals were used in basic research, 15 percent in application-oriented (“translational”) research. Seventeen percent of the experiments served regulatory purposes such as quality control of medical products and safety testing of chemical substances. Seven percent of the animals were used for the conservation of genetically modified populations and three percent for other purposes (education, training, and continuing education, environmental protection, and species conservation). Overall, around 129,000 fewer animals were used in experiments than in the previous year. The number of “surplus” laboratory animals also fell sharply to 1.1 million animals (264,000 or 19% fewer than in the previous year). As in previous years, cancer research was the main focus of disease research. Around 43 percent of laboratory animals were used in applied research in this area. In basic research, however, research on the immune system dominated with 22 percent, followed by neuroscience with 20 percent and oncology with 12 percent.
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The alliance of scientific organizations “Tierversuche verstehen“ (”Understanding Animal Experiments") held a press briefing to put the figures into context. Among other things, the briefing addressed the reduction in the number of laboratory animals in Germany, particularly in view of the partly contradictory developments in other European and non-European countries. This raises the question of the extent to which, and whether, the decline in animal testing, particularly in toxicology, but also in preclinical and clinical research, represents a success for animal welfare, or whether it is merely a displacement of biomedical research to other countries with less stringent animal welfare regulations. A written presentation and interpretation of the figures by “Tierversuche verstehen” can be found here.