ANZCCART NZ responds to New Zealand's animal research statistics for 2023

New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) released the 2023 statistics about the use of animals in research, testing and teaching in early January 2025.

View the full annual statistics report: Statistics on the Use of Animals in Research, Testing and Teaching in New Zealand in 2023.

Commentary summary:

• As usual there is variability in animal use between each annual statistics report due to the nature of the research, testing and research being undertaken in the reporting period.
• On average over a 20-year period, animal usage is neither increasing nor decreasing.
• In 2023 farm animals were the most used animal type, reflecting New Zealand’s strong agriculture focus, and most use of animals was by commercial organisations.
• A greater percentage of animals in 2023 were used only to obtain tissue for research purposes, indicative of greater adoption of research not involving live animals.
• Though a higher percentage of animals were subject to high-impact manipulations, this was the result of more vaccine testing and research involving environmental pest control research in 2023.
• Reporting of implementation of the Three Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement) continues, with many institutions embracing new initiatives. ANZCCART NZ notes there is a paucity of funding to enable research into the development and validation of alternatives (the Replacement principle) even though the use of alternatives is encouraged where possible by the NZ Animal Welfare Act.
• In the spirit of the Openness Agreement for the Use of Animals in Research and Teaching in Aotearoa New Zealand, ANZCCART NZ encourages institutions to publish their animal use statistics and place their examples of Three Rs implementation on their websites to bridge the knowledge gap identified in a 2023 ANZCCART NZ survey of public attitudes.
• The low-profile release of the annual statistics report creates a challenge to MPI, NAEAC and ANZCCART NZ to ensure the information reaches the public and addresses the knowledge gap.
   

ANZCCART NZ provides annual commentary on these reports as part of our commitment to openness in the use of animals for research, testing and teaching (RTT). We commend the continuing publication of annual statistics in New Zealand, which started in 1987, originally by NAEAC (National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee), and since 2014 by MPI.

The 2023 data were provided by the country’s 22 Institutional Code Holders and the 118 other organisations that seek approval for their use of animals from the Animal Ethics Committee of a Code Holder.

The New Zealand Animal Welfare Act 1999 requires institutions to report animal use for RTT annually, based on every 3 years for long-term projects or when a project is completed or when ethical approval expires, whichever comes first. 

We also acknowledge the considerable work and time required of MPI to collate and analyse the data for release to the public of a report in a very understandable format.

Key findings:

• Total animal use in 2023 was 316,568, with an additional 110,565 animals (mainly mice followed by rats and fishes) bred but not used for research purposes and subsequently euthanised, both numbers less than in 2022 (392,344 and 134,845 respectively)
• The three-year rolling average (2021-2023) for animals used was 339,595 animals – higher than for 2020-2022 because of 2022’s higher total
• Farm animals comprised over 51% of all animals used, reflecting New Zealand's strong agricultural research focus
• 66% of animals undergoing research procedures experienced "no impact" or "little impact" from research procedures compared with 86% in 2022
• 14% of animals used in 2023 underwent no research procedure but were euthanised to obtain tissues for research purposes compared with 6% in 2022
• Commercial organisations (56%), universities (29%), and crown research institutes (7%) were the top three users of animals compared with 36%, 43% and 9% in 2022
   

Notable statistics:

• Cattle, as in 2022, were the most commonly used species (127,167 animals); sheep (30,461) were fourth (second in 2022)
• Mice were the second most frequently used (47,449 animals) (third in 2022); and unusually wallabies (45,011) were third
• 444 animals were successfully rehomed (i.e. adopted into a home environment) after use which was less than in 2022 (599 animals) and a further 189,337 animals (310,967 in 2022) were returned to their owners, retained by institutions or returned to their natural environment in the wild
• Animal husbandry was the primary purpose for animal use (112,022 animals) followed by environmental management, and then more-or-less equally veterinary research, teaching and basic biological research. In 2022 the sequence was veterinary research, basic biological research, animal husbandry and teaching
   

Animal Welfare Impact:

Two-thirds of all animals experienced minimal welfare impact from research procedures. However, 17% of animals (52,731) experienced "high impact" or "very high impact" manipulations (compared with 2% in 2022), primarily in critical areas such as vaccine testing and environmental management research, particularly on control of wallabies.

Regulatory Framework:

All research, testing and teaching activities involving animals in New Zealand are strictly controlled under the Animal Welfare Act 1999 and overseen by Animal Ethics Committees. In 2023, 22 institutions held approved Codes of Ethical Conduct, with 118 additional institutions having arrangements to use these existing codes.

Three Rs Implementation:

For the second year MPI has asked institutions to volunteer information on implementing the 3Rs principles as there is no mechanism to collate statistics on this. The report highlights continued progress across research institutions with 48 (compared with 30 in 2022) providing examples of Replacement, 60 (cf 44) providing examples of Reduction and 63 (cf 43) providing examples of Refinement. Furthermore 23, 32 and 39 examples were given respectively for Replacement, Reduction and Refinement that had been used for the first time. Notable achievements include:

• Development of invertebrate models to replace some rodent studies
• Enhanced experimental design to reduce animal numbers
• Improved housing conditions for research animals 

With respect to Replacement, only 77 animals (mice) in 2023 were used to develop or validate alternatives to animals compared with 922 (primarily fish) in 2022. This probably relates to minimal funding for this type of research being available in New Zealand.

For further information

Please contact ANZCCART (NZ): anzccart@royalsociety.org.nz