LONDON — The UK government has confirmed its support of the appropriate use of animal experimentation for medical research, with a speech made recently by the health minister.

The health minister Lord Philip Hunt set out in full, for the first time, the UK government's policy on the use of animals in medical research. He was speaking to the Association of Medical Research Charities — an umbrella organization for a wide range of health research organizations — at a meeting last week. He outlined why he considered that continued use of animals in research was essential: "We are still a long way from understanding fully how humans stay healthy and get diseases. Sometimes, the only way to learn more is to study living animals."

Research using animals has contributed to almost every single one of the major medical advances of the last century, Lord Hunt suggested. These included the development of penicillin, insulin, polio vaccines, cardiac procedures and kidney dialysis. "More recently, drugs for the treatment of cancers, HIV/AIDS, asthma and depression have been developed with animal experiments," he pointed out.

The use of animals in medical research is a particularly sensitive one in the UK. Last year, animal rights activists carried out high-profile protests at the premises and homes of staff at Huntingdon Life Science, a contract research organization providing product development and safety testing for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and chemical industries. The protests led to withdrawal of financial support for the company, which has now been bought by a US group, Life Sciences Research.

Lord Hunt said: "It is wholly unacceptable for [animal rights extremists who use violence] to try to stop researchers going about their legitimate business." Several measures have been introduced to tackle these extremists, he explained. The Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 was introduced to prevent protests outside people's homes and to make the sending of hate mail (including e-mails) an imprisonable offence. The House of Lords has established a select committee to conduct an inquiry on issues relating to use of animals in scientific procedures, which is expected to report by July this year. "The prime minister has also set up a ministerial group on animal rights extremism. The group, chaired by the home secretary, has the overall aim of reassuring people working in legitimate research on animals," he reported.

The situation needs to be sorted out satisfactorily, Lord Hunt argued, because animal research must continue. "Properly regulated animal research is absolutely essential to the discovery of new treatments, as well as to the assessment of the safety and efficacy of medicines. That is why we have strengthened the law that protects all involved in research — in the private, public and charitable sectors — to ensure that this vital work can continue."

He suggested that the complexity of the human body made it likely that animals would continue to be needed for medical research. "We are still a long way from understanding fully how complex living creatures develop correctly, stay healthy, and why disease occurs. Sometimes the only way to learn more is to study living animals." He pointed to two recent advances made by the UK research community which have relied on the use of rats: the demonstration that transplanted stem cells dispersed to the damaged area of brains damaged by stroke and a study restoring neurological function after spinal cord injury in rats.

There is no doubt that the activities of animal extremists have impacted on research in the UK – several major bodies funding research were unwilling even to comment to The Scientist on the issue, presumably because of fears of becoming the targets of the type of demonstrations and violence seen at Huntingdon.

The research funding bodies that were willing to comment reported some changes in the use of animals in the grant applications they have received over the past few years. Tony Peatfield, head of international and policy with the Medical Research Council, reported: "Animals are being used less in some areas of medical research. Figures show a reduction in the use of cats and dogs in research – people seem to be using rodents more."

Data on regulated procedures on animals for Great Britain in 2000 showed that more than four-fifths (82%) were rats, mice and other rodents, all bred for research. Fish, amphibians, reptiles and birds (including many fertilized hen's eggs) made up 14% of the animals used in research. A small number (1.5%) of small mammals other than rodents – mostly rabbits and ferrets – were used; 2.3% were large mammals, including sheep, cows and pigs, and a very small number (0.4%) were dogs and cats, again bred specially for research purposes. Only 0.1% of animals used in research were monkeys.

Peatfield considered that, despite concerted efforts to develop new research techniques using isolated cells or other models, animals will still be required in some areas of investigation. He said: "There will always be a case for using animals because of their complexity. The different systems in the body work in a way that is difficult to replicate in a model." He added: "The use of rodents is likely to increase with recent developments in genomic research."

Cancer Research UK also agreed that animal research was likely to continue. "Animal research forms a small but crucial part of Cancer Research UK's research programme," the organization reported. Most of its research involving animals — which takes up only 2% of its research budget — uses rodents. The Wellcome Trust said: "Experiments on animals have made, and continue to make, an important contribution to advances in medicine and surgery, which have brought about major improvements in health. However, The Trust will only support experiments on animals when there are no suitable alternatives." The Trust is currently reviewing its policy on the information required from applicants on human and animal experimentation, and hopes to announce these in the near future.

Researchers working with animals in the UK are already subject to some of the most rigorous regulations in the world. The UK was the first country to develop legal measures controlling the use of animals in research, in 1876. The controls were significantly revised and extended by the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act of 1986, before being tightened up again in 1998. Lord Hunt commented: "The Act is widely acknowledged to be the most rigorous piece of legislation of its type in the world." In the US, rats, mice and birds are not even included in the current Animal Welfare Act, which regulates research funded by the National Institutes of Health despite recent efforts by animal rights groups to change this. "The research community supports the humane use of animals, and this is likely to continue — particularly in developing findings from genomics studies," reported Kate Alexander, vice president of Americans for Medical Progress, a non-profit educational foundation funded by research institutions.

Summing up the government attitude to use of animals in research, Lord Hunt concluded: "Properly regulated animal research is absolutely essential to the discovery of new treatments as well as to the assessments of safety and efficacy of medicines. That is why we are acting to protect not only companies that carry out this work for the pharmaceutical industry but also the establishments in the public sector that do similar vital research."