Commission wants to reduce tests on animals

The European Commission hopes to prevent an increase in the number of animals used in EU laboratories by revising a 21-year-old law.

A review of the 1986 animal welfare directive on the treatment of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes will make room for modern scientific and legislative developments.

Due before July, the review will encourage the use of alternatives to animal testing, taking advantage of the latest computer modelling technologies and advanced therapies to generate human tissues.

Roughly 12 million animals are used for experiments in the EU every year. Because new chemicals legislation requires the registration of several thousand chemicals, millions more might be used.

A ban on the use of animal testing for cosmetics from 2013, under the cosmetics directive. The drive to find alternatives is intensifying, prompted in part by a ban on the use of animal testing for cosmetics brought in by the cosmetics directive.

The European Medicines Agency is on Friday (27 April) expected to approve alternative methods to test for skin and eye irritations and allergies. If approved, the new tests will have to be used by industry to meet requirements under the cosmetics directive and chemicals regulation REACH.

"There has been a complete change in the political scene over the last 20 years," said Thomas Hartung from the Commission’s Joint Research Centre, which developed the latest alternatives. "We have seen a biotechnology revolution and an informatics revolution."

Five members of the European Parliament on Tuesday (24 April) asked the Commission to include plans for a ban on the use of primates, including monkeys and chimpanzees, in its revision of the animal welfare directive.

But researchers warn against a blanket ban, saying that primates are still essential to medical research.

Mark Matfield of the European BioMedical Research Association said that it was possible to develop alternatives to animals for safety tests but that primates were still needed for medical research.

"MEPs who have worked on the REACH legislation have become used to the idea that it is possible to avoid animal tests for product safety. It is a different matter when it comes to finding a cure for cancer," he said.

"Nothing today shows us it will be possible to develop alternatives to non-human primates when it comes to neuroscience or the search for new vaccines," said Matfield.

The review is expected to increase the number of animals covered by welfare standards under EU legislation. Animal embryos and some additional forms of sea-life could fall under its scope.

But industry and animal welfare groups are worried that the increased number of animals to be covered by the review will provoke reactions from anti-vivisection extremists.

"Increasing the number of animals covered could look like an increase in the number of animals used for testing," explained one lobbyist.

A spokeswoman for Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas denied that the review had been delayed to allow time to settle the sensitive issue.

"The commissioner is taking time over the review because he wants to improve the animal testing standards," she said.

"We are not hostage to any particular lobby group. When we do publish a review we want to make sure there is a real change to legislation."

The European Commission hopes to prevent an increase in the number of animals used in EU laboratories by revising a 21-year-old law.