Lab error created ‘mouse city’ with population of York
Home Office rebukes research centre that also left animals without adequate food and water
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A “MOUSE city” with a population the size of York was accidentally bred by scientists following a laboratory blunder, a Home Office report has shown.
Researchers at an unnamed facility bred nearly 180,000 more mice for experiments than their licence permitted and were given a letter of reprimand.
The mistake is the most alarming of dozens of non-compliance cases by laboratories across Britain, which are highlighted in an official government report into animal testing.
Describing the breach, the report said that a licence had been granted to monitor 127,600 mice over the course of one project, but “this number was significantly exceeded by 179,546”. Scientists working on the project claimed the error happened after numbers of mice were recorded on different databases.
The report also showed that a primate was left overnight in a recovery incubator after surgery without food or water, while some rodents died when they were not fed properly, or suffocated when their cages were not fixed to air vents.
And due to a “miscommunication”, 74 chicks died after being left for 65 hours without adequate humidity.
Jan Creamer, president of the National Anti-Vivisection Society said: “The failure to provide basic care for animals in research is disturbing and raises further questions about compliance and suffering during the procedures themselves.
“Using advanced non-animal methods avoids such doubts and provides better results, for animals and people.”
Latest figures show that mice account for 60 per cent of the two million animals used in scientific testing every year in Britain.
Mice are used in research projects to tackle health issues such as cancer, dia- betes and Alzheimer’s disease. Rodents are used for animal research because they are small and adapt well to new environments.
They also breed exceptionally quickly, with mothers giving birth to up to 40 mice per year.
Peta, the animal rights charity, has previously called for governments and researchers to “stop funding cruel and abusive experiments” on rats and mice.
Dr Julia Baines, the group’s science policy adviser, said: “It’s outrageous that denying animals their most basic needs – food, water, and air to breathe – earns the perpetrators no more than a slap on the wrist. Shamefully, our laws allow animals to be treated as disposable objects as long as the right paperwork is filled out.”
Writing in the most recent report, Baroness William of Trafford, minister of state for the Home Office, said: “When animals have to be used we must continue to fully apply the principles of the 3Rs (replacement, reduction and refinement) and ensure that appropriate welfare standards are met.”