Annual report 2024

CHAIRMAN’S FOREWORD

Another year has passed for the Danish 3R Center and the country’s laboratory animals. The number of animals used for experiments in Denmark has fuctuated around 250,000 annually during the past ten years. For a country like Denmark, which grows on knowledge and has a large pharmaceutical industry, it is natural to have a certain level of animal testing given the current research tools available.

However, the vision of the 3R-Center is to reach a day when we can achieve the same benefts for health and society without exposing animals to sufering and stress. Until that day comes, a signifcant part of the Danish 3R-Center's work will focus on reducing the sufering experienced by laboratory animals. Achieving such improvements in animal experimentation through the 3Rs requires research. Once again, this year, the 3R-Center had a very limited amount of research funds available, which were allocated to promising projects. While we can be pleased that the number of relevant applications to the 3R-Center is increasing, the available funding is insufcient to support all highly relevant projects.

Another key task of the Danish 3R-Center is to gather and disseminate knowledge about the 3Rs. We gather knowledge through close contact with our sister organizations worldwide and by partici pating in relevant events. This year, we also hosted a meeting for European National Committees in Copenhagen, with a strong focus on the sharing of knowledge.

Maintaining close collaboration with our stake holders is also important to us, and in the coming year, we will work to expand our stakeholder net work. As a National Committee, we also have the responsibility of advising the Animal Experimentation Council, and our interaction with them has been increasingly frequent and positive.

The 3R-Center’s flagship event is the annual symposium, and for the National Committee, it is the annual meeting for animal welfare bodies. It is a great pleasure that these meetings are so well attended and receive positive feedback. A high light is always the awarding of the 3R Prize, and we have also decided to introduce an additional award, the 3R Talent Prize, which will better recognize early-career researchers.

A signifcant number of laboratory animals are used abroad by Danish researchers and companies. Therefore, we found it necessary to develop a set of guidelines to ensure that a high 3R standard is maintained according to Danish values and measures, even when research commissioned by Danish researchers takes place abroad.

Together with the Animal Experimentation Council, we have established a scoring system for animals used in multiple sclerosis research, aiming to down grade some experiments from severe to moderate distress and, ideally, to mild distress. A similar initiative is underway for fsh subjected to severe distress in various regulatory testing scenarios. Work on animals in the highest distress category is conducted in close collaboration with the relevant researchers, who, like everyone else, recognize the beneft of minimizing animal sufering.

In the coming year, we will seek funding to establish a network that ensures researchers have access to updated animal-free methods. To support this initiative, we have issued a statement encouraging companies and institutions to sys tematically organize animal-free methods, making them as accessible and professionally supported as animal-based methods.

I would like to extend my gratitude to my fellow board members and our secretariat staf for their dedication to Danish laboratory animals. I also want to thank the Danish 3R-Center’s stakeholders: the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, the Animal Protection Association, DOSO, Lundbeck, and Novo Nordisk.

Lastly, but certainly not least, I want to thank all of you who serve on the country’s animal welfare bodies and work to ensure even further implementation of the 3Rs. People can spend their time in many ways, and for laboratory animals, it is crucial that there are people dedicated to their welfare.

You are now holding our annual report, which provides a detailed account of the progress of the 3Rs in Denmark. I hope you find it an insightful and positive read.

Axel Kornerup Hansen
Chairman of the Board, The Danish 3R Center