New OECD Test Guideline Halves the Number of Animals Used in Reproductive Testing

July 2011

After years of negotiations with international regulators, a PETA Regulatory Testing Division scientist was instrumental in getting the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to formally adopt a test for reproductive toxicity that uses half the number of animals as does the current test—1,300 animals instead of 2,600. This test can substitute for others and would save another 1,300 animals per test. The potential number of lives saved is huge. In the first phase alone of REACH (the massive new European chemicals testing program), more than 4 million animals could be saved.