Medical research in the UK is being jeopardised by activists who have persuaded transport companies to stop importing mice, rats and rabbits for scientific experiments, a former British science minister says.
The boycott affects only a tiny proportion of laboratory animals, but scientists say these particular animals are the most important ones for their research.
Following campaigns by animal rights groups, several ferry companies and airlines, including British Airways, now refuse to carry mice, rats and rabbits destined for laboratories.
The Channel Tunnel, which links the UK to France, has long refused to allow any animals for medical research to be transported.
Only foreign airlines still carry such animals into Britain.
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Paul Drayson, a former science minister, said that is "choking off vital research" into deadly diseases such as Alzheimer's and cancer.
"Medical research will wither in our universities and, as a result, more people will suffer and die," he wrote in a commentary on Wednesday in The Times newspaper. Drayson called for the UK government to support the transport industry in opposing the animal activists.
More than three million animals are used in British lab experiments every year, of which about 15,000 are imported. Fewer than one per cent of the animals used in British labs come from abroad.
UK science minister David Willetts said the British government is working with the transport industry and researchers to draft a code of conduct on how to import laboratory animals.
If the refusal persists, such animals might only be carried by British military aircraft and ships, he said.
