BfR
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Annual Report 2014
68
BfR database on animal testing projects
in Germany
With the third law amending the Animal Welfare Act in
2013, Germany implemented the goals of European Di-
rective 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for
scientific purposes. Since then, one of the special objec-
tives of the new legislation has been to publish information
on all projects in which test animals are used in the form of
so-called “non-technical project summaries”.
In this regard, the BfR was given the task of publishing
these generally understandable project summaries of ap-
proved animal testing projects in Germany on the internet.
To do so, the BfR developed the AnimalTestInfo database
in close cooperation with the competent authorities of the
federal states, who are responsible for authorising animal
experiments, and published it on the internet in December
2014 (
. It is the first web-based da-
tabase solution in Europe to publish project summaries on
animal experiments. AnimalTestInfo contains information
on all animal experiments requiring authorisation, which
were requested by the scientific research institutes of the
universities, industry and national government in Germany.
Basically, the project summaries are prepared by the ap-
plicants and sent to the competent authority together with
each respective application for project authorisation. If the
conducting of the animal test is allowed, the competent
authority sends the anonymised project summary to the
BfR within three months. The BfR then publishes the data
within twelve months. The project summaries may not vio-
late any property rights or contain any institution or person-
At the BfR, the Experimental Toxicology and ZEBET department developes and evaluates various alternative
and complementary methods to animal experiments in line with the 3R principle. It prepares new toxicological
assessment strategies and dedicates itself to innovative online-based technologies to search for and assess
internationally developed alternative and complementary methods. The department also develops new con-
cepts to reduce the number of animals used in experiments. Through the new Animal Welfare Act, the BfR
is obliged to involve itself with ways and means of reducing the pain and suffering of laboratory animals. For
this reason, a experimental animal management section, which can draw on high-level expertise in the field
of laboratory animal science, is integrated into the department.
Alternatives to
Animal Experiments
related data. The applicants are responsible for ensuring
compliance with these stipulations.
The project summaries provide information on the legally
possible purpose that the animal experiments serve, the
expected benefits of the experiments and the expected
adverse effects on the animals used. Information on the
planned number and species of the animals to be used
(mice, rats etc) is also given in the summaries along with
details of the measures that have been taken in advance to
avoid the use of animals, reduce their numbers in the test
or improve their wellbeing. Applicants explain the expect-
ed benefits of the test project on the basis of the following
questions: Which scientific question is to be answered?
What scientific progress is being sought? How will the pro-
ject benefit humans or animals?
The AnimalTestInfo database contributes towards sat-
isfying the interest of the public in objective information
on animal test projects. In addition to this, it will provide
scientists with valuable information on future research pri-
orities for the field of alternative methods. To this end, the
database offers the users different research paths. With
the help of various pre-set or freely selectable search func-
tions, a search can be made for the animal species, the
numbers of animals used per species, the year of publi-
cation, the purpose of the test or for keywords in special
fields. These search functions are explained in detail in the
user instructions.
