Laboratory Animals

Introduction

The protection and welfare of animals is a wide area covered by a considerable number of pieces of Community legislation. Areas include wildlife, animals in zoos, farm animals, animals in transport and, last but not least, animals used in scientific experiments.  The latter are covered by Directive 86/609/EEC on the protection of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes. Animal experimentation, be it for the development of new chemicals or medicines, for physiological studies, for studying environmental effects or for testing new food additives, has to be carried out in compliance with Directive 86/609/EEC.

It is important to note that the Treaty of Amsterdam, signed on 2 October 1997, introduced a Protocol on animal welfare. The Protocol creates an obligation for the Community and the Member States to pay regard to the welfare of animals in a number of policy areas.

On this site you will find legal texts related to Directive 86/609/EEC, information on the revision of the Directive, on statistics on the use of laboratory animals in the European Union and useful links to further information in the field of animal experimentation.

Updates

• The Commission has recently published a “Report on the Development, Validation and Legal Acceptance of Alternative Methods to Animal Experiments in the Field of Cosmetics”

• The Environment Directorate General has requested the Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks (SCHER), to elaborate an opinion on the use of non-human primates in research and more specifically on the replacement, reduction and refinement of their use in scientific procedures.

• European Parliament Written Declaration 0040/2007 on non-human primates in scientific experiments (pdf ~78 KB), and the subsequent response by the European Commission (pdf ~51-73 KB), also providing a response to petitions received by the Commission referring to this Declaration.

• Response to a petition on a supply and breeding centre for non-human primates in northern Spain.

• The Fifth Statistical Report on the number of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes in the EU in 2005 has been adopted by the Commission, COM/2007/675 final

• Response to petitions on the protection of experimental animals and banning experiments on non-human primates (pdf ~150 KB)

• The Commission has adopted Recommendation 2007/526/EC on revised guidelines for the accommodation and care of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes. The Recommendation, which was adopted on 18 June 2007, will align EU legislation with the revised Council of Europe guidelines (Appendix A of Convention ETS 123), on accommodation and care of laboratory animals. This Recommendation reflects the current best practice and the latest scientific knowledge on good husbandry and care of experimental animals. It assists Member States in the implementation of Article 5 of Directive 86/609/EEC on the protection of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes.