Report of Animal Use at PRIMACYT in 2024

PRIMACYT is committed to the 3R principle (Replace, Reduce and Refine the animal testing) established by Russel and Burch in 1959. As an EU Reference Laboratory for Alternatives to Animal Testing (EURL ECVAM) appointed by the European Union in 2013 we take the debate on animal experiments and animal welfare very seriously. Since we are highly committed to the animal welfare enshrined in law, we gently treat our animals with care.

At PRIMACYT, we provide scientists and researchers at universities, academic and governmental research institutions, food protection agencies, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and chemical companies including cell-based meat producing companies with products and biological assay systems. Since more than 20 years our liver cells are used for drug development in human and animal health, environmental safety testing of chemicals and for basic research.

As we only perform organ removal from anaesthetised animals to obtain the biological tests systems used for these applications, the animals do not suffer any pain.

In 2024 we have successfully isolated liver cells from 81 mice and 5 Wistar Han rats and supported our clients in academia and industry with hepatocytes and non-parenchymal liver cells. We have produced about 2.5 billion mouse hepatocytes from CD-1 and C57BL/6 mice alone. When freshly isolate hepatocytes are seeded at confluency, these numbers add up to about 350 multi-well plates (6-, 12-, 24- or 96-well format) that were available for scientist and researchers worldwide, thereby helping to substantially reduce the number of animal experiments.