Third EU Report on the Statistics on Animals Used for Experimental and Other Scientific Purposes: Trends,Problems,Conclusions

Abstract

A brief overview is given of the data published in the third report on the number of animals used for scientific purposes in the European Union (EU), in 1999. In comparison to the second EU statistical report, the meaningfulness of the data has been greatly improved, since 14 EU Member States have now used the “EU tables”. Even though the total number of animals officially reported in the EU for 1999 (9.81 million animals) is lower than the number reported for 1996 in the second report (11.65 million animals), an increase in animal numbers was observed in several Member States. Repeatedly, the use of transgenic animals was considered to be the cause for this. Most national authorities provided some comments on the data they submitted. However, the quality of these accompanying notes varies considerably, with the comments provided by The Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Austria, Denmark and the United Kingdom containing the most-detailed remarks on their data.

Keywords

EU animal use statistics experimental animals

References

CEC (2003). Third Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on the Statistics on the Number of Animals Used for Experimental and Other Scientific Purposes in the Member States of the European Union, COM(2003) 19 final, 22 January 2003, 175 pp. Brussels, Belgium: Commission of the European Communities. Website http://www.europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/rpt/2003/com2003_0019en01.pdf (Accessed 6.10.04).

CEC (1994). First Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on the Statistics on the Number of Animals Used for Experimental and Other Scientific Purposes, Com(94) 195 final, 27 May 1994, 59 pp. Brussels, Belgium: Commission of the European Communities.

CEC (1999). Second Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on the Statistics on the Number of Animals used for Experimental and other Scientific Purposes in the Member States of the European Union, COM(1999) 191 final, 26 April 1999, 29 pp. Brussels, Belgium: Commission of the European Communities. Website http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/environment/docum/99191_en.pdf (Accessed 6.10.04).

Sauer

U.G.

, & Kolar

(2000). Developments in the collection of statistical information on the number of animals used in experiments and other scientific purposes in the European Union. ATLA 28, 133–145.

Sauer

U.G.

, Kolar

, & Rusche

(1998). Neue Tabellen zur Erfassung der Versuchstierzahlen in der Europäischen Union. ALTEX 15, 144–146.

Rusche

, & Spielmann

(1994). Letter concerning First European Commission Report on Statistics of Animal Use. ATLA 22, 512.

Poole

T.B.

(1995). Guidelines and legal codes for the welfare of non-human primates in biomedical research. Laboratory Animals 29, 244–249.

Ruhdel

I.W.

, & Sauer

U.G.

(1998). Primate Experimentation: A Report on the Use, Supply and Housing Conditions of Primates Used for Scientific Purposes within the European Union, 80 pp. London, UK: European Coalition to End Animal Experiments.

Anon. (2001). White Paper on a Strategy for a Future Chemicals Policy, COM(2001) 88 final, 27 February 2001, 32 pp. Brussels, Belgium: Commission of the European Communities. Website http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/wpr/2001/com2001_0088en01.pdf (Accessed 6.10.04).

10.

Anon. (2002). Consolidated version of the treaty establishing the European Community. Official Journal of the European Communities C325, 33–184. Website http://www.europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/treaties/dat/EC_consol.pdf (Accessed 6.10.04).