RECORDS ON THE USE OF ANIMALS IN EXPERIMENTS IN THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA AND IN OTHER EU MEMBER STATES WITHIN A 15-YEAR PERIOD

Scope of this paper is to present data on the number and species of animals used in experiments and on the purposes of use of animals in the Republic of Slovenia and in the European Union within a 15-year period. According to data collected in the particular years of the period from 1992 to 2006 on the use of animals in experiments in the Republic of Slovenia, the trend of the use of animals in experiments has been found to be on the decline. The total number of experimental animals in 1992 amounted to 37,212, and in 2006 to 13,181 only. In the Republic of Slovenia, the use of experimental animals in applied research shows a downward trend on account of validated alternative methods in use, which do not require animals. In the most recent years in particular, the Slovenian legislative activity in the field of protection of experimental animals has been most productive with the scope of harmonising the Slovenian legislation with the EU law. The European Commission published five reports on the use of animals in experiments. The total number of experimental animals as reported by the EU Member States amounted to 11.79 million in 1991, to 11.64 million in 1996, to 9.81 million in 1999, to 10.73 million in 2002, and to 12.11 million in 2005. The first two reports provided a limited scope of analysis due to the absence of a consistent system of reporting the data on the use of experimental animals in the Member States. The third and the fourth reports were based on agreed harmonized tables. This facilitated a more extensive interpretation of results on the use of experimental animals in the EU, despite some inconsistencies in the data submitted by the Member States. The second report covered for the first time the data collected by the 3 new Member States, and the fifth report by the 10 new Member States. However, it is not possible to draw conclusions on the evolution of use of animals for experimental purposes in the EU by comparing these data with those of the previous reports. The total number includes different animal species, from cold-blooded vertebrates on the one side, to mammals on the other, including farmed animals or anthropoid primates as used in some Member States. Comparison between the national reports is rendered impossible on account of the non-aligned methods of reporting by the EU Member States. These reports give a general survey only of the use of animals in experiments at Community level.