Questions and answers on animal experiments
Here you’ll find the key questions and answers on animal experimentation in Switzerland. The content is based on questions from the public.
Authorisations
For every animal experiment, an application must be submitted to the cantonal agency (veterinary service’s animal welfare office). Researchers must be able to show that the benefit to society outweighs the harms to animals (harm-benefit analysis). The cantonal committee on animal experimentation assesses every animal experiment involving harms to animals and reviews whether it complies with the principle of absolute necessity in accordance with Art. 137 AniWO, and that all conditions for approval are met. The cantonal agency issues the licence based on the committee’s recommendation.
Animal experiments must be carried out in accordance with the latest scientific evidence and meet the requirements of good practice in research.
Yes. Under Art. 25 AniWA, the FSVO has the right to appeal under cantonal and federal law. The FSVO carries out the federal supervision of animal experiments and may may bring a legal challenge if a cantonal licence does not fully comply with animal welfare regulations.
The number of animal experiments authorised in Switzerland is published every year as part of the official statistics.
To access this information, please consult the annual animal experimentation statistics and the FSVO Dashboard.
More information: Animal experimentation statistics
An animal experiment is authorised if the requirements set out under Art. 140 of the Animal Welfare Ordinance are met. The key factors are:
- The experiment only uses animals to the extent that is absolutely necessary.
- The harm-benefit analysis as set out under Art. 19 para. 4 AniWA shows the benefit outweighs the harms.
- The purpose is legitimate, and suitable monitoring and termination criteria (endpoints) have been defined.
- Requirements are met regarding the breeding and production of genetically altered animals with a harmful phenotype.
- Requirements are met regarding housing, handling, origin, infrastructure and identification, and with regard to institutes, laboratories and staff.
- Responsibilities before, during and after the experiment are clearly defined.
- For animal experiments not involving harms, the requirements regarding housing, breeding, infrastructure, staff and responsibilities apply as licensing requirements.
Rejected applications are documented in the annual animal experimentation statistics and on the FSVO Dashboard.
More information: Animal experimentation statistics
An application is rejected if the provisions of animal welfare legislation are not fulfilled. This may be because:
- The necessary information can be obtained with fewer animals, less harm or suffering, or using an alternative method according to the 3R principles.
- The proposed model is unsuitable.
- The application is incomplete or not sufficiently verifiable.
- The harm-benefit analysis shows that the expected benefit does not justify the harms to the laboratory animals.
- The purpose of the experiment is illegitimate.
Researchers and laboratory animal facilities not only have to report how many animals are used in experiments, but also how many were bred and imported for that purpose (Art. 145 Animal Welfare Ordinance).
Laboratory animals are bred to meet the needs of research projects. This requires animals with certain characteristics (e.g. sex or genetic traits). In order to obtain the animals with the desired characteristics, more animals need to be born than can subsequently be used – particularly in genetically modified lines in which many animals will not have the desired trait.
Currently, laboratory animal facilities do not have to indicate what happens to the animals that are not used. From 1 February 2027, reporting of this information will be mandatory. It can be assumed that currently the majority of these animals are killed.
Many animals have to be killed early on if they do not exhibit the necessary characteristic needed for the experiment. This particularly applies to genetically modified lines. Animals without the desired characteristic cannot be used in experiments but are necessary to obtain the animals that can be used in the experiment.
These animals are either killed or used for further breeding.
Animal experiments
Anyone who conducts animal experiments, or breeds and houses laboratory animals, must have the necessary specialist knowledge, a recognised qualification, and attend regular further training courses. Researchers complete a theoretical and practical training lasting several days. This teaches them the basics on ethics, legislation, the 3Rs, study planning, analysis, and careful handling of animals.
Animal care staff in laboratory animal facilities must also be appropriately trained and attend further courses on an ongoing basis.
The majority of animal experiments are conducted at universities, particularly in biomedical research. Industrial players also carry out experiments – both for research purposes and for the legally required testing of medicines for efficacy, safety (toxicology) and effects on the body (pharmacology). The use of animals to address questions relating to animal husbandry, as well as their use for training purposes, is also often classified as an animal experiment.
The FSVO publishes this information in the animal experimentation statistics and as interactive charts on the FSVO Dashboard:
More information: Animal experimentation statistics
There are a number of reasons for the increase in severity degrees 2 and 3. The analysis of the animal experimentation statistics for the years 2013 to 2024 shows that
- The number of uses causing moderate to severe suffering steadily rose in the area of ‘human diseases’, while the number of uses in severity degrees 0 and 1 significantly decreased.
- The number of uses causing moderate to severe suffering saw a particularly marked increased in oncology (cancer).
- Neurology (brain and nervous disorders) remained stable over the years, while other areas only saw a minimal change.
- In genetically-modified animals (GM animals), uses involving suffering increased, while less severe GM-animal experiments declined slightly.
- In parallel, uses causing suffering involving non-genetically-modified animals declined, leading to an increase in the relative share of experiments causing suffering involving genetically-modified animals.
Data on animal experiments show, for example, that cancer research is increasing, but they do not provide any conclusive information on the causes. Potential reasons are changed research priorities or new models that are scientifically more relevant but that involve greater harms to animals. The increase in animal experiments involving severe harms observed since 2013 was also influenced by FSVO’s revised technical information 1.04 on severity degrees from late August 2018. This revision led to experiment-related harms tending to be assigned to a higher severity degree from 2018 onwards.
In the period from 2014 to 2023, an average of around 88,000 fewer animals were used per year than in the period 2004 to 2013. Nonetheless, uses in severity degree 2 increased by 26,000 animals/year and in severity degree 3 by 3,000 animals/year between 2014 and 2023. This increase in severity degree 3 is also due to the fact that the numbers in the early 2000s were already very high.
The animal numbers alone are not a suitable way of assessing the impact of the 3Rs, however. There are no statistics on how many alternatives were used. The animal numbers and severity reflect current research needs, the available models and research activity in Switzerland. Application of the 3Rs reduces the number of animals used and minimises the harms caused to laboratory animals (pain, distress, suffering). However, it is not possible to quantify this.
The impact of the 3Rs can be seen most clearly in concrete examples, such as use of the rabbit pyrogen test, which, based on current knowledge, has not been used in Switzerland for a number of years.
The federal government has supported the advancement and implementation of the 3Rs since 2018 together with universities, Interpharma and the organisation Swiss Animal Protection through the Swiss 3R Competence Centre. The focus areas are research, communication, training and monitoring. The Federal Council also launched the National Research Program NRP 79 on 3R innovation, implementation, ethics and society in 2021.