Bristol SU to inform all students of the ‘cruelty involved in the forced swim test’

Bristol SU has issued an update on the University of Bristol’s use of the forced swim test, after passing a motion to ban the practice in November 2024.

The SU compiled the update as part of the mandated action “to ensure that all University of Bristol students are informed about the cruelty involved in the forced swim test.”

The University of Bristol has been conducting the forced swim test since 2008, as a model to study the neurobiology of stress. 

The test involves putting a rat or mouse in a water-filled container, with no means of escape. The rodent will try to escape by diving to the bottom of the container or scratching at its sides, before surrendering and floating stationary.

The animal is observed for the full duration of the test, which is limited in time to five or six minutes. Once the study is complete, the rodent is killed using a legally approved method—typically decapitation—so that its blood and/or tissue can be collected for scientific research.

The forced swim test has been under scrutiny for its dubious validity. An independent report by the Animals in Science Committee found that the forced swim test is not a valid model for depression and is limited in its use to test antidepressants. The University of Bristol does not use forced swimming in any of these contexts.

The Animals in Science Committee did find the forced swim test valid in research into stress, provided that those seeking to use the test to study stress explain how a rodent’s response to forced swimming is “naturalistically relevant” to humans. 

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Agnes Sales, the Equality and Access Officer for Bristol Veg Soc, who proposed the motion to ban the use of the forced swim test, shared that the University of Bristol “is one of the last in the country that greenlights the torture of sensitive mice and rats with the forced swim test.”

“The test is shunned by most other universities, funding bodies, pharmaceutical companies, many public figures, including our Member of Parliament, and now the University’s student body.”

“Over 60,000 members of the public have written to the Vice Chancellor about this issue, and the Home Office’s policy is to “completely eliminate” the test in the “near future.” The university must align itself with the above stakeholders and drop the test now.”

The motion to “end all forced swimming experiments at the University of Bristol” proposes a series of actions to be taken by the Students’ Union, including “ensuring that all University of Bristol students are informed about the cruelty involved in the forced swim test by e-mailing them about this issue” and “campaigning for the university to stop using the forced swim test.”

In the update issued by Bristol SU, Katie Poyner, their Union Affairs Officer, announced: “As the Union Affairs Officer, I work alongside the other six elected officers to ensure student voices are heard and acted on. Lucy and I have taken steps to implement this motion, which was voted on by students and passed at Student Council, by informing students via email about the cruelty of the forced swim test.”

“We will also raise this motion as a talking point at Senate, the University’s governing body for teaching and research. We know how important this issue is for both staff and students.”

A University of Bristol spokesperson said: “We recognise there are differing views about the use of animals in research, including some concerns around whether it is ethical. Where possible we rely on non-animal methods, but when these are not suitable to address scientific gaps in knowledge, we use animals in order to improve our understanding of health and disease – this includes neuroscience, and diseases associated with mental health.

“The forced swim test or forced swimming are experimental procedures used by researchers at the University of Bristol to understand the neurobiology of stress. The test, for which no non-animal alternatives exist, has been approved as a valid model to study the processes underpinning how the brain deals with and adapts to stressful challenges.

“Increasing our understanding of this is important because stress is known to contribute to the development of major depression and many other illnesses. How we respond and adapt to stressful events in our lives is crucial for the development of new treatments for stress-related disorders. We do not use forced swimming procedures at Bristol to model depression or to screen antidepressants and no mice or rats have ever drowned or been swum to exhaustion.

“We are committed to open and ongoing dialogue about how and why animals are used in research. Details relating to the numbers of animals used annually and case studies illustrating the types of research undertaken are provided on the University’s website. We also keep up to date with the latest thinking on all aspects of research using animals (including advances in welfare) and have robust and thorough ethical review processes in place for every project.”

You can read the full update here.

Further information regarding the use of animals in research can be found on the understanding animal research website.