Welfare groups condemned "shameful" numbers of experiments on UK laboratory animals yesterday despite a one per cent drop in the total announced by the Home Office.

The latest report from the body that polices animal testing showed that just over 3.6 million procedures were conducted in the UK last year. Mice, rats, birds and fish accounted for 97 per cent of the tests.

For the first time, more than half involved experiments on genetically engineered animals, said the Animal Scientific Procedures Inspectorate. Breeding to produce genetically modified (GM) animals or "harmful mutants" engineered to suffer a genetic defect has increased by 10 per cent since 2008. These procedures made up 1.5 million of the total.

Dogs, cats, horses and monkeys were used in less than one per cent of the procedures.

Home Office Minister Lynne Featherstone said: "This Government is committed to continuing with the highest standards of animal protection. We are also committed to ending the testing of household products on animals and to working to reduce the use of animals in scientific research."

But welfare campaigners insisted not enough was being done to prevent the distress and suffering of animals used in laboratories.