USDA Posts FY2017 Totals for Animal Usage by Research Facilities

On or before December 1, each Animal Welfare Act (AWA)-regulated research facility must submit an Annual Report (APHIS Form 7023) to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) that documents its use of animals for research, testing, teaching, experimentation, and/or surgery.  APHIS’ Animal Care (AC) program reviews the data to ensure the calculated totals are consistent with the number of reported animals in each pain/distress category associated with animal use.  The data, found here, represents the number of animals research facilities reported as being used or held during fiscal year 2017. 

USDA has publicly shared summarized reports of the data along with copies of the annual reports (with appropriate redactions) for the past 19 years. Each summary report is based on a specific pain category – designated by a particular column on the Annual Report form itself. We have made no changes to the format of the summary reports. However, we have updated the explanation of the annual report data (how it is collected, what review occurs, potential irregularities in reported numbers) in response to the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) May 2018 audit report recommendation on animal use in Federal research facilities.

USDA Animal Care. Ensuring humane treatment. Serving people. Doing right.