Animal testing: Commission reports on alternatives

Today, the Commission's Joint Research Centre publishes the annual report of the EU Reference Laboratory for alternatives to animal testing (EURL ECVAM). The report highlights that, stemming from a project co-led by ECVAM, the first internationally accepted new type of standard based on using combinations of non-animal methods (the OECD guideline for a ‘defined approach') has been approved. Such guidelines facilitate the mutual acceptance of testing data between OECD member countries, which results in significant savings both in terms of animals used for testing and the associated costs. The report also shows that, responding to the European Parliament's calls for more attention to be paid to education and training, EURL ECVAM worked extensively with educators to share knowledge about the Directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes in classrooms and lecture halls across the EU. As a result, new sets of teaching resources have been developed and freely shared, which are already being put to use in a multitude of education settings. The report emphasises the Commission's commitment to concretely follow up on the European Parliament's resolution urging the acceleration of the transition to innovation without the use of animals in research, regulatory testing and education. ECVAM focuses on identifying, validating and promoting innovative scientific approaches using non-animal methods, such as those based on human cells or computer modelling.

This directly feeds into the objectives of the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, which aims to increase the amount of information available on potentially hazardous chemicals while at the same time making the best use of non-animal methods. More information on the report can be found here.