Statistics on animal experimentation

¹ Number of animals used in experiments. If an animal is used in multiple experiments in succession, it is counted multiple times.

² ETH Zurich is working with other universities to conduct several dedicated research projects involving animal testing. Some of these are attributed to ETH Zurich and appear in the table. Others are attributed to one of the partner universities and are not included in the figures. This includes experiments involving primates, which ETH Zurich conducts jointly with the University of Zurich.

³ 2019 and 2020: Feeding experiments (lowest level of severity). The pigs involved underwent standard agricultural-?style fattening.

What was the distribution of severity degrees of the experiments?

Based on animal exposure, all animal experiments in Switzerland are categorised into four severity levels according to legislation. These range from no burden (severity degree 0) to a severe burden (severity degree 3). In 2023, more than half of the experiments at ETH Zurich took place at severity degree 0 and 1 (54% of all experiments). Experiments at severity degree 3 represented a minority (9%).

In mice, most experiments were carried out at severity degree 0, 1 and 2, with some carried out at severity degree 3. Also birds were used in experiments of severity degree 3. In all other species, experiments were carried out either without distress (severity degree 0), with mild distress (severity degree 1) or moderate distress (severity degree 2). 

The researchers at ETH Zurich report the number of laboratory animals used annually to the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO). The FSVO publishes annual statistics on its website with external page data on all Swiss animal experiments.