Animal welfare interests have expressed concern at the sharp rise in the numbers of cats, dogs, horses and pigs being used in Irish laboratories. Commercial companies in particular have increased their use of dogs.
An annual register of the numbers and species of animals, and the nature of the experimentation being conducted, is kept by the Department of Health and Children, which issues licences for those experimenting on animals.
The latest figures relate to 1999, when 73,929 animals were used for experimentation in universities, hospitals, agriculture, veterinary and fisheries research institutes and commercial establishments.
More than 40 per cent of these were laboratory mice and another 27 per cent were fish. The next largest group was laboratory rats, at about 20 per cent. Other species included guinea-pigs, hamsters, rabbits, horses, sheep, cattle and birds.
The number of pigs used in experiments has increased more than 200 per cent to 844 in 1999 from 276 in 1998. The numbers of horses, donkeys and crossbreeds increased by 88 per cent to 192 animals, according to the Department's figures.
The number of cats used in experimentation rose by 74 per cent to 129 and dogs by 64 per cent to 312. Mice numbers in the laboratories increased by 35.7 per cent.
Most of the animals on the Department's register are used for studies of human and animal diseases. But 16 per cent were used for toxicity testing, including skin sensitisation experiments.
"We are concerned that the number of animals has risen yet again," said Ms Yvonne Smalley of the Irish Anti-Vivisection Society. "We would be keen to know exactly what is being done to the dogs and why they are being used, which would open up the whole debate.
"It is very much shrouded in secrecy. The public would be very interested to know what is going on," she said.
The rise in the number of laboratory animals was "very worrying" according to Mr Geoffrey Thomas, a spokesman for the Dr Hadwen Trust, which promotes research methods that do not use animals. "It gives Ireland a unique position within the EU."
There had been a consistent decline in the numbers of laboratory animals used in other EU states, he said, but the number was growing here. "Alternatives need to be better funded," he said.
Authorisation for use of laboratory animals was tightly regulated by EU directive and Irish legislation, according to a representative of the Department of Health and Children.
The third-level institutions also have ethics and animal welfare committees which review any proposed use of animals before allowing experimentation.
