51³Ô¹ÏÍø

How many animals were used by the RVC in 2021?

In 2021, the RVC used 6969 animals in research*. The vast majority of these were mice (68%), and zebrafish (23%).

These figures include those submitted to the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Office as part of the annual returns.

Numbers of animals that had procedures carried out on them were:

*June 2023: Differences were found between numbers on this website and internal records.  Internal records showed a lower number of zebrafish and mice than previously recorded on the website.  Investigation has confirmed that the internal records were correct.  Therefore the numbers of zebrafish, mice and total animals were corrected on 16 June 2023.   The numbers were corrected as following: Total animals used changed from 9,972 to 6,957; mice changed from  6747 to 4759; zebrafish changed from 2283 to 1256.

*April 2024:  a project licence holder notified us of changes to the numbers that we previously reported in 2021 and 2022. Specifically, in 2021 we reported that 180 rats had procedures carried out on them whereas the correct number was 192. This therefore meant the total number of animals used at the RVC was 6969 rather than 6957.  The numbers have been corrected here and the licence holder has resubmitted their return to the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Office. 

Twenty five client-owned pet dogs were involved in studies conducted under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act (A(SP)A) at the RVC where veterinary patients are studied in depth. These were all used with informed client consent and involved procedures of recognised veterinary practice but for reasons explained below could not be undertaken under the Veterinary Surgeons Act.

Ten cows were blood sampled for experimental purposes but remained as part of a dairy herd at the College’s farm.

We undertake a number of clinical studies involving veterinary patients who return to the care of their owners at the end of each procedure, which may have been something as simple as a blood test. Some of these studies need to be undertaken under ASPA - because, for example, additional blood samples or other clinical tests were undertaken for research purposes, rather than for the direct benefit of the animal involved in the study - and are included in the above table and the numbers of animals involved detailed above.  

For more information on these types of studies and the animals involved see Research using Client-owned Animals.

See also Use of Animals in Research - Case Studies for a series of short articles explaining how and why we use animals in research at the RVC.

Numbers of procedures carried out at the RVC were (info added to website July 2023): 

 Numbers of animals that were killed following procedures carried out were (info added to website July 2023):

 The Severity classifications of the procedures that were carried out (info added to website July 2023):

Purpose of Research carried out (numbers are procedures) - (info added to website July 2023):

The following numbers of animals were either rehomed or returned to their owners:

** these rehoming figures include animals that were used for teaching purposes and dogs that were rehomed from a breeding colony and so were not involved in experimental research. 

*** On 9th September 2022, this value was changed from 51 to 53, in order to include two dogs rehomed late in 2021 who were inadvertently omitted from the count.

The proportion of our funded research that relates to animal work

As a measure of the proportion of our research that involves experimental animals, the amount external grant funding used to cover the costs of purchasing and keeping the animals has been calculated as a percentage of the total non-pay spend from external grants and is 21.5%.  

2020/21

**** Our accounting processes changed in 2021.  These figures now exclude payments passed to partners.  This explains the apparent increase in % from 2019/20.  

For details of animals used in other years please see:

2023 figures

2022 figures

2020 figures

2019 figures  

2018 figures

2017 figures