MEP animal testing vote angers welfare groups
pharmafile | April 7, 2009 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing |Â Â Animal testing, Europe, preclinicalÂ
The European Parliament's Agriculture and Rural Development Committee has been accused of watering down proposals drawn up by the European Commission to amend EU Directive 86/609/EC on laboratory animal welfare.
A number of animal welfare groups, including the Dr Hadwen Trust and Animal Defenders International, claim that several important measures designed to limit the suffering of laboratory animals have been taken out of the proposals.
Meanwhile other advocacy groups, including the European Science Foundation, insist that without the amendments the proposed Directive on the Protection of Animals Used for Scientific Purposes would "seriously impede further advancement of European medical and veterinary research".
The Committee voted by 19 votes to seven to accept a series of amendments put forward by UK Conservative MEP Neil Parish, who chairs the panel.
The panel endorsed a ban on the use of great apes who are threatened with extinction, except for experiments intended to conserve these species. However, it rejected the idea that tests using non-human primates should be restricted to "life-threatening or debilitating" conditions.
This would seriously hinder research into some forms of cancer, multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease, the MEPs said, pointing out that other European and international guidelines require that some drugs be tested on primates before they are approved.
That infuriated animal welfare campaigners, as did the adoption of amendments that allowed animals to be re-used in experiments where pain is deemed to be 'mild' or 'moderate'. The Committee argued that preventing re-use would mean that even more animals be used in testing, undermining the objective of the new Directive.
The AGRI Committee did however support the creation of new EU and member state facilities to develop more alternatives to animal experiments, suggesting that the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods take on a coordination role for research groups working in this area.
But animal welfare groups are also appalled that it limited the need for prior ethical review and authorisation for animal tests, reserving this process for tests those involving primates and experiments in other animals in which pain would be deemed 'severe'.
The Dr Hadwen Trust, a UK charity campaigning to develop alternatives to animals for medical research, welcomed provisions in the proposals to support non-animal research but said it believed the Committee had been swayed by "intensive and often alarmist lobbying by research groups".
"By so far voting against wholly reasonable measures to improve welfare, MEPs are betraying millions of vulnerable animals and choosing instead to protect the vested interests of multi-billion dollar research corporations," it said.
Animal Defenders International made its feelings equally plain.
"It is beyond belief that these revisions to animal testing legislation are being portrayed as a good thing for animals. Make no mistake, this is a tragedy," said the animal welfare group.
"MEPs are claiming to protect laboratory animals whilst simultaneously slashing protections proposed by the European Commission, which they spent years developing in consultation with all parties," it concluded.
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