EU to boost lab animals' welfare
By Laurence Peter BBC News |
 Mice form the biggest group of animals used in tests in the EU |
For the first time, common rules to protect animals used for scientific research will apply in all 27 EU member states.
"This brings much of the rest of Europe close to the UK's high standards" for animal welfare, Dr Simon Festing, chief executive of the lobby group Understanding Animal Research, told the BBC.
The rules were drawn up by the European Commission, then amended by the European Parliament and the Council, the grouping of EU ministers.
Animal welfare push
With the introduction of the EU's Lisbon Treaty last December, animal welfare became a core EU value, ranking alongside the fight against discrimination, promotion of gender equality and the protection of human health and welfare.
A new EU treaty article says the member states "shall, since animals are sentient beings, pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals".
 In the UK protesters have targeted labs where animals are tested |
A key principle embedded in the new legislation is the "three Rs" - Replace, Reduce, Refine.
The goals are to replace animals with alternative techniques wherever possible, to reduce the number of animals used in experiments, and to refine experiments as much as possible to minimise suffering.
A difficult area to legislate on is the degree of pain or stress that animals suffer during scientific experiments.
The new draft directive establishes a system to classify the severity of procedures, and examples of "mild", "moderate" and "severe" experiments are given in annexes to the directive.
But Dr Festing says that with humans, the "pain scale" of one to 10 used by doctors is only a rough guide, and with animals the degree of pain is even harder to assess.
In some tests, pain is part of what the researchers want to assess - for example in studying migraine, he says. But in analysis of arthritis, "we don't really want animals to be in pain - we want to give them painkillers".
Samira Gazzane of the anti-vivisection group BUAV says the new directive contains too many exceptions that dilute the restrictions on suffering. "We're very unhappy that some definitions are very unclear," she told the BBC.
Rodents before primates
BUAV and other campaigners against animal testing want a complete ban on experiments on great apes. But the directive will allow them in exceptional circumstances - for example, to research "a life-threatening, debilitating condition endangering human beings".
Monkeys - "non-human primates" - formed only 0.09% of the animals used in scientific tests in the EU in 2005, and no great apes were used.
In contrast, 53% of the procedures were conducted on mice, and rats were the next largest group - 19%, the European Commission reported. The total number of animals used was 12.1 million.
Under the new directive, all projects involving tests on live animals will require prior authorisation from a "competent authority" in each country. Its role will be to evaluate the projects impartially.
There is also a requirement that at least one-third of the testing establishments are inspected each year. And all those using primates will be inspected at least once a year.
Toxicity tests
Safety testing of chemicals and appliances used by consumers is one of the important areas where animals are often used.
The EU has banned the use of animals to test cosmetics, and 2013 is the target year for ending all marketing in the EU of cosmetics tested on animals. Until then, imported cosmetics with ingredients tested on animals can still be sold in the EU.
But the EU's new legislation to regulate hazardous chemicals - called Reach - might lead to more tests on animals.
According to Dr Festing, it is still unclear what impact Reach will have in this area, "but it's probably quite small compared with the total amount of research".
Meanwhile, the huge expansion of genetics, especially research into the genetic basis of disease, means "the animal numbers are all going up", he says.
With Europe's rapidly ageing population there is increasing demand for tests on non-human primates, among other animals, he says.
The race is on to find treatments for diseases prevalent among the elderly, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
The development of more specifically targeted medicines also makes primates especially useful because "they are the only animals that share our metabolic pathway," Dr Festing says.
An EU expert panel has argued that testing on primates is still necessary because their immune system is very similar to that of humans. They are needed to develop drugs for malaria, HIV/Aids or emerging killer infections such as Sars, scientists argue.
That view is rejected by the European Coalition to End Animal Experiments (ECEAE), which includes BUAV. It says that numerous tests on primates have failed to produce a viable Aids vaccine, or treatments for Parkinson's, stroke or other life-threatening conditions.
Encouraging openness
Ms Gazzane of BUAV says the EU needs clear targets for finding alternatives to animal testing.
The new directive aims to foster a culture of data-sharing among researchers, to prevent duplication of experiments on animals.
But experts say there are limits to the degree of transparency that can be expected in this area, not least because some animal rights campaigners have used violent methods in the past.
Europe's diversity - cultural and linguistic - may also be a barrier to transparency.
(Note: This story appeared on BBC Online on Friday, April 16, 2010)
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