Transparency data

Animal usage by APHA under Animals (Scientific Procedures ) (ASPA) act in 2025

Updated 15 April 2026

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) is a signatory to the Concordat on Openness in Animal Research committed to providing opportunities for the public to find out how animals are used in research at APHA.

This table provides the number of animals used in studies that were completed in 2025 and the reasons for their use. It excludes transgenic breeding mice, where the modification to their DNA has had no effect on their health or welfare.

Except for research on wildlife and farm animal surveillance which are done in the field, animals are euthanased at the end of studies, with rehoming only occurring in exceptional cases.

This is due to the nature of the experiments and infectious agents APHA works with to deliver its mission “to safeguard animal and plant health for the benefit of people, the environment and the economy”.

The infectious agents used are generally subject to statutory controls, which puts restrictions on the ability of animals to leave the establishment site and therefore the ability to re-home animals.

APHA has an ongoing programme of work to replace its use of animals when scientific developments allow. APHA also works to minimise any potential wastage of animals, by limiting animals coming on site just to those necessary to undertake its experiments. The only animals bred on site are those that are not available through appropriately licenced or approved suppliers.

As part of its ‘Culture of Care’ for working with animals, APHA has codes of practice, working procedures and training programmes to define and enforce the high standards it must have for this type of work.

You can find more information in the Ethics Committee’s section of the Research at APHA page.

APHA is committed to eliminating severe suffering where at all possible in its use of animals for research. As part of this in 2025 members of the ethics committee, and relevant project and personal licence holders, took part in a workshop led by the RSPCA on implementing the Roadmap to Reducing Severe Suffering.

Species	Numbers	Reasons for use
Cattle	621 mild	Most were used for the licencing of vaccines for protection of cattle against foot and mouth disease, to benefit global animal health. More information about the devastating effect that foot and mouth disease has on unprotected animals areas of the world can be found at foot and mouth disease - WOAH - World Organisation for Animal Health. A small number were used in the development of cattle vaccine against bovine TB, as part of Defra’s strategy to eradicate strategy bovine TB by 2038. Bovine TB currently leads to the slaughter of 27,000 cattle in the UK per year. A small number were used on an ongoing basis as blood donors providing negative control blood for in-vitro work. Also a cow that was naturally persistently infected with bovine viral diarrhoea (a pestivirus) was transported to site to look at potential  aerial transmission to pigs and sheep and whether it would interfere with diagnosis of pestivirus diseases in these species (classical swine fever and border disease, respectively). Another cow was used as a control.
Domestic fowl	1,285 mild, 67 moderate, 51 severe, 24 sub-threshold, 10 non-recovery	The majority were used in avian influenza (AIV) and Newcastle disease research as part of National and World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) reference laboratory activities, which include provision of antigen, antisera and negative control material for animal health tests. More information on APHA’s activities in this disease, there is an APHA Science Blog on avian influenza and information on the latest situation in England
Domestic ducks	24 mild, 2 moderate, 22 severe	Influenza virus competition experiments. Expanding knowledge of AIV replication dynamics and transmission when different strains are in competition.
Ferrets	26 mild, 10 moderate	Influenza virus studies, which includes assessment of immunogenicity and efficacy of an H1N1 vaccine.
Mice	700 moderate, 127 severe, 5 non-recovery	Research into Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies in support of the national and WOAH reference laboratory activities. More details of APHA activities in this area, both in-vivo and in-vitro can be found at TSEglobalNet - International Reference Laboratory for TSE.  The use of the bioassay significantly contributed to the UK international risk status for BSE being downgraded this year which should give a huge boost to farm sector.
Pigs	139 mild, 13 moderate	The majority were used in a project looking at the effects of feed supplements on gut health and salmonella infection. Others were used in assessing resistance of gene edited pigs to the classical swine fever, a highly contagious notifiable disease of pigs. The susceptibility of pigs to the related cattle pestivirus when housed in proximity and sharing the same air space was also studied (see above in cattle). Another experiment looked at porcine reproductive and respiratory virus (PRRSv) with a view to developing a vaccine. PRRSv is a highly contagious, economically devastating viral disease in pigs worldwide, causing severe reproductive failure in sows (abortions, stillbirths) and respiratory distress in growing pigs. A smaller number than previous years were used for the licencing of vaccines for protection of pigs against foot and mouth disease, to benefit global animal health. More information about the devastating effect that foot and mouth disease has on unprotected animals areas of the world can be found. Foot and mouth disease - WOAH - World Organisation for Animal Health. A small number were also used on an ongoing basis as blood donors providing negative control blood for in-vitro work.
Sheep	35 mild, 1 moderate	The majority were used for ongoing blood donors for negative control blood for in-vitro work, 2 were used of production of helminth worm eggs for invitro work. A small number were used looking at the susceptibility of sheep to cattle pestivirus when housed in proximity and sharing the same air space (see above in cattle). Scrapie infected animal used for supply of materials to develop and maintain tests for APHA’s ongoing testing capability for surveillance. See Scrapie: how to spot and report the disease.
Goats	14 mild	Naturally infected Scrapie animals for supply of materials for APHA’s ongoing testing capability for surveillance. See Scrapie: how to spot and report the disease.
Rabbits	194 mild, 4 moderate	Production of polyclonal antisera for tests as part of Controlling food borne zoonoses and antibiotic resistance to protect health (APHA Science Blog)
Wild birds	836 mild	The sampling of free living birds as part of surveillance for flaviviruses (West Nile virus and Usutu virus), these were released back to the wild after sampling.  These diseases are potential risk to domestic animal and human health.
Grey squirrels and rats	72 mild	Wildlife management techniques, primarily to support red squirrel conservation (APHA Science Blog)