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European Statistics
Directive 86/609 contains a requirement that Member States shall collect statistical information about the use of animals in experiments and shall 'at regular intervals' provide a 'suitable summary' of this information to the European Commission who will publish a report on it.
However, it is quite difficult to assemble meaningful statistical data on this subject because, between different countries, there are significant variations in the way the data is collected and in how the regulatory system defines what each item of data actually means:
- Data can be collected for the wrong period.
- Data collection can incomplete.
- Data can be collected for different groups of species.
- The defintion of an animal can vary (some countries include foetal and embryonic foms).
- The definition of an experiment can vary (some countries include the routine breeding of certain strains).
Member States have improve their data collection and the European Commission has managed to harmonise many aspects of the data reporting across the Member States, but the differences in definitions of an experiment and an animal still limit the comparability between countries.