Henry Smith – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Henry Smith on 2014-07-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Annual Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals Great Britain 2013, what procedures are included in the direct diagnosis category.

Norman Baker

The Annual Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals in Great Britain 2013 report a total of 52,444 procedures were conducted on 6,725 animals with ‘Direct diagnosis’ as the primary purpose. This represents a 3% increase on the total number of procedures, in this category, in 2012 and a 1% increase on the number of animals, in this category, in 2012. Most procedures reported under the category ‘Direct diagnosis’ involve the collection of blood or blood products from either non-immunised animals or animals immunised against various antigens. The procedure of blood collection is classified as being of low severity and, with appropriate licence authority, may be repeated
many times in the same animal. The products from these procedures, including whole blood and antisera, are used in diagnostic tests.