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Environmental information systems
Key messages: The number of uses of animals in tests for which alternatives exist decreased between 65% and 90% between 2015 to 2020, depending on the type of test. The number of uses of animals in some tests appears to be increasing. In fact, it counteracts the decrease created by tests where animal methods were replaced by non-animal methods.
Trends in the number of uses of animals for industrial chemicals legislations for the most common toxicity tests, EU-27, 2015-2020
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The indicator Uses of animals in regulatory testing of industrial chemicals presents the total number of uses of animals for regulatory testing of industrial chemicals, and reports no significant overall changes. The present indicator breaks down the data to allow changes per specific tests to be viewed.
The number of uses of animals in tests for which suitable alternatives exist has substantially decreased between 2015 and 2020. This includes skin sensitisation, skin irritation and eye irritation tests in which the use of animals fell by 65%, 74% and 90%, respectively. Compared to 2015, these reductions led to 6,676 fewer uses of animals, equating to about 5.5% of the total number of uses of animals in 2020. Trends for skin irritation and eye irritation tests are not significant enough to be shown due to their low overall numbers.
This positive change can be attributed to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries’ work on the validation and regulatory applicability of these methods, and to amendments to the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 replacing animal with non-animal methods in the standard information requirements.
On the other hand, the number of uses of animals in some tests appears to be increasing and counteracts the decrease created, among other factors, by tests in which animal methods were replaced by non-animal methods. Ecotoxicity and repeated dose toxicity tests appear to be increasing, comprising up to 20% of the total number of uses of animals, as do neurotoxicity tests, which represent 1% of the total.
Figure 1 shows trends for the top eight tests (out of a total of 16) that together represent on average 98% of all uses of animals for industrial chemicals legislation.
Overall, the introduction of non-animal methods for some tests has significantly counteracted the increasing trend in the use of animals for other types of tests in regulatory testing. With the progressive introduction of non-animal approaches in EU chemicals legislation, the reliance on animal tests is expected to gradually decrease.
Please consult the relevant indicators and signals below for a more comprehensive overview on the topic.
This indicator covers non-human vertebrate animals and cephalopods. Reporting obligations from EU Member States are established under Directive 2010/63/EU and the Commission Implementing Decision 2012/707/EU repealed by the Commission Implementing Decision 2020/569/EU. Data are aggregated and published by the European Commission and available through the open access ALURES Statistical Database.
The number of uses of animals is equivalent to the total number of times animals were subjected to a procedure, i.e. a test in the context of regulatory testing of industrial chemicals.
More information on EU actions for the protection of animals used for scientific purposes is available here.
Relevant objectives under the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability
- Promote the development of innovative tools for testing and risk assessments
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Other relevant indicators and signals
References and footnotes
- ↵EU, 2006, Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2006 concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), establishing a European Chemicals Agency, amending Directive 1999/45/EC and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 793/93 and Commission Regulation (EC) No 1488/94 as well as Council Directive 76/769/EEC and Commission Directives 91/155/EEC, 93/67/EEC, 93/105/EC and 2000/21/EC (OJ L 396, 30.12.2006, pp. 1-849).
- ↵EU, 2010, Directive 2010/63/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 September 2010 on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes (Text with EEA relevance) (OJ L 276, 20.10.2010, pp. 33-79).
- ↵EU, 2012, Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2012/707 of 14 November 2012 establishing a common format for the submission of the information pursuant to Directive 2010/63/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes (notified under document C(2012) 8064) (Text with EEA relevance) (OJ L 320, 17.11.2012, pp. 33-50).
- ↵EU, 2020, Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2020/569 of 16 April 2020 establishing a common format and information content for the submission of the information to be reported by Member States pursuant to Directive 2010/63/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes and repealing Commission Implementing Decision 2012/707/EU (notified under document C(2020) 2179) (Text with EEA relevance) (OJ L 129, 24.4.2020, pp. 16-50).