Protection of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes

The objective of this report is to present to the Council and the European Parliament, in accordance with Article 26 of Directive 86/609/EEC, the statistical data on the number of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes in the Member States of the EU. For this third Report, 14 Member States (all except Germany) submitted the data from 1999, as far as possible, in the format of eight harmonised statistical tables. The aim of this report is to provide a comprehensive overview on the numbers of animals used in various experimental purposes in the Community in 1999. Because previous reports have been compiled on the basis on non-harmonised data it was only possible to make very limited comparisons with previous results. The main difference with the previous reports is that the data submitted by the Member States now covers a much wider range of procedures and purposes, due to the introduction of harmonised tables. The purposes of experiments are described in more detail including aspects such as regulatory requirements and types of tests versus products. This allows for a much more precise and comprehensive picture to be drawn at the EU level for the first time. The estimated total number of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes in 1999 is 9,8 millions. The total number of animals reported in 1996 was 11,6 millions. It is evident that in 1999 the total number has passed below 10 million mark, which indicates a significant reduction. By far the biggest group of animals was rodents and rabbits. Since this is a new procedure, the report issues a warning about the consistency of data submitted by Member States. The report is divided into two parts: - a global compilation and overview for the European Union of the statistical data submitted by the Member States for 1999. - the data submitted by the Member States with a summary of the comments provided by the Member States. The information may be summarised as follows: - mice and rats are by far the most used species. Rodents together with rabbits represent the majority of animals with some 86,9%. There is a significant reduction in the use of cold-blooded animals compared to the previous report (12,9%); however, it still amounts to 6,6% of all the species used. The group containing horses, donkeys and cross-breeds, pigs, goats, sheep and cattle represents only 1,25% of the total number of animals used. Carnivores represent 0,36 % of the total number of animals and primates represent less than 0,1% of the animals used in 1999. - more than 60 % of animals have been used in research and development for human medicine, veterinary medicine, dentistry and in biological studies. Production and quality control of products and devices in human medicine, veterinary medicine and dentistry required the use of 21 % of the total number of animals reported in 1999. Toxicological and other safety evaluation represents the third important group of experimental purposes with 10% of animals used. On the question of the latter, it is emphasised that animals used for toxicological and other safety evaluation represent only 10% of the total number of animals used for experimental purposes. The number of animals used for toxicological evaluation of products/substances for animal feed, for additives for human foodconsumption, for cosmetics and for household is very small (4%) when compared to the other products or endpoints. Products or devices used for human medicine, veterinary medicine and dentistry occupy 54% of the chart surface. The group of products/substances falling under the scrutiny of authorities concerned with safety of health and of the environment by chemical products, such as industrial chemicals and pesticides, is responsible for the use of 19 % of animals. It is important to note that 16% form "other" toxicological evaluations.�