A NSW Government report calls for changes in the use of animals in medical research. 

The government has released the report from an Upper House inquiry into the use of primates and other animals in labs across the state. 

The report makes 13 recommendations for the use of animals in research, including the phasing out of two controversial tests, improving the transparency of animal research, and the rehoming of animals used in medical research. 

It says there is “compelling evidence” that the harm to animals from the tests is greater than the human health benefits gained, and described them as “particularly harmful”.

The report’s first recommendation suggests that the days are numbered for two particularly controversial procedures. 

One – the ‘forced swim test’ – has faced intense scrutiny in recent years and its interpretation is contentious even within the scientific community. It involves placing a mouse in water to compel it to swim, and observing it until it stops struggling. 

The other – a test in which mice are forced to inhale cigarette smoke while tightly constrained, often with repeated exposure over several weeks – has an extremely high animal welfare impact. 

The smoking tests raised some of the “most horrific welfare issues”, according to Lisa Craig, an experienced animal research carer who has worked at four facilities in Australia.

“[The mice] are left two days a week in withdrawal. The particular model leaves animals hypothermic, wet and in significant distress between cigarettes,” she said. 

“Generally those animals are smoked twice a day... In many instances, I have seen those animals culled en masse.”

Experts say that more humane approaches will still enable crucial progress in the study of chronic respiratory diseases which place a major toll on human health globally.

The report's other recommendations include a call for increased funding for inspections and audits of research facilities, and the establishment of a national research centre dedicated to finding humane alternatives to testing on animals.

The report also recommends the Government support into the so-called 3Rs - efforts that aim to Replace, Reduce or Refine the use of animals in research. This was first proposed by a Federal Senate Select Committee in 1989 but was never implemented.