Table 4.

The total number of animals used for scientific purposes throughout the European Union in 2015, 2016 and 2017, numbers of animals used in basic and translational/applied research and the numbers of animals used specifically in cancer research. Mice are the most commonly used species, and make up the majority of animals used for basic and translational/applied research and for cancer research. Data from [17].

Year of data Collection	2015	2016	2017
Total number of animals used for all scientific purposes	9,782,570	10,028,498	9,581,741
Total number of mice used for all scientific purposes	5,766,804	6,043,947	5,756,121
Relative burden on mice (number of mice used relative to total animal use for all scientific purposes)	59%	60%	60%
Total number of animals used in basic, translational and applied research *	6,665,081	7,042,567	6,557,609
Total number of mice used for basic and translational research	4,449,650	4,780,898	4,565,334
Relative burden on mice (number of mice used relative to total animal use for basic, translational and applied research)	67%	68%	70%
Total number of animals used in cancer research **	1,008,724	1,110,378	1,196,945
Total number of mice used for cancer research	961,971	1,059,036	1,103,749
Relative burden on mice (number of mice used relative to total animal use for cancer research)	95%	95%	92%

*—Does not include the animals used for regulatory purposes such as the toxicity and safety testing required for compound approval. **—Calculated by totaling number of animals/mice used for oncology research and number of animals/mice recorded as used for human cancer research.