Forcing rodents to swim to see how anti-depressants work will be illegal under a world-first ban of cruel science experiments.
Legislation to prohibit such tests, as well as forced smoke inhalation experiments, passed the NSW parliament on Thursday.
The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has recommended against the experiments but a few research groups continued the practice, condemned by animal advocates as "cruel, unscientific and unnecessary".
