Press release

Published: 14 January 2026

Animal experimentation incompatible with modern health science

Despite growing scientific knowledge and steadily rising healthcare expenditures, chronic non-communicable diseases continue to increase worldwide. This imbalance lies at the heart of a new international consensus report published in the December 2025 issue of the renowned journal Frontiers in Nutrition, to which the nationwide organization Doctors Against Animal Experiments (DAAE) contributed. An international consortium of 284 experts from 31 countries calls for a fundamental rethink of health research and medicine. Sustainable health requires evidence-based prevention, health-promoting lifestyles, and, not least, a decisive shift in biomedical research: away from animal experimentation and toward human-relevant, precise, and ethically acceptable research methods.

Under the title “Toward a roadmap for addressing today’s health dilemma – The 101-statement consensus report,” a global network of 284 specialists from medicine, public health, nutrition science, sports science, ethics, and education presents a comprehensive roadmap for addressing today’s health crisis. Based on three international scientific conferences, the report consolidates 101 recommendations for a sustainable health strategy. Key message: The most effective and cost-efficient strategy to improve individual and public health lies not primarily in high-tech medicine, but in disease prevention through a healthy diet, ideally wholefood and plant-based, and an active lifestyle. This approach is complemented by additional lifestyle factors such as adequate sleep, stress management, social relationships, and the avoidance of health-damaging substances.

A dedicated chapter critically reassesses animal experimentation. Long regarded as the “gold standard” in medical research, animal experiments increasingly conflict with modern, human-relevant health science. The authors — including Dr. Corina Gericke, veterinarian and vice chair of DAAE, and Dr. Gaby Neumann, veterinarian and scientific advisor at DAAE — make it clear that animal experimentation does not meet the current technological standards of modern medical and health research. Numerous scientific review articles clearly show that the transfer rate of animal experimentation results is extremely low, which calls into question their usefulness for medical applications in humans. Moreover, many human diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, or type 1 diabetes cannot be realistically modelled in animals. This underscores how misleading animal experiments can be for understanding human health and disease.

The report criticizes the fact that animal experimentation fails to meet the requirements of “fit-for-the-future medicine.” Such medicine aims at individualized prevention and treatment while taking genetic diversity, lifestyle, and environmental factors into account — aspects that animal experiments systematically cannot capture.

Instead, the consensus report clearly advocates expanding human-relevant research methods. These include organoid models derived from human cells, organ-on-chip technologies, computer-based simulations, as well as epidemiological and clinical studies in humans.

References

Wirnitzer K.C. et al. Toward a roadmap for addressing today’s health dilemma – The 101-statement consensus report. Frontiers in Nutrition 2025; 12: DOI 10.3389/fnut.2025.1676080