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Reporting of Animals Used for Scientific Purposes

The use of animals for scientific purposes is the subject of an annual statistical report. The legal basis for reportingis the Laboratory Animal Reporting Ordinance (VersTierMeldV).

Anyone who carries out animal experiments, kills animals for scientific purposes according to Article 4 Paragraph 3  of the German Protection Aid (TierSchG) or kills animals that were bred for scientific purposes but not used must report this to the competent authority by March 31 of the following year (Article 1 Paragraph 1 in conjunction with Paragraph 2 VersTierMeldV). Various details such as the type, origin and number of animals used as well as the purpose and type of use must be disclosed. In addition, the actual degree of severity according to Article 15 Paragraph 1 of Directive 2010/63/EU must be specified for each case of use (Article 1 Paragraph 1 VersTierMeldV).

The competent authorities of the federal states of Germany send the annual reports to the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) by June 30 (Article 16c No. 2 TierSchG in conjunction with Article 2 VersTierMeldV). The BfR collates and merges all the data  into on report, which is then forwarded to the European Commission in accordance with EU legal requirements (Article 54 Paragraph 2 of Directive 2010/63/EU).

The current report of the use of animals for scientific purposes in Germany can be found here.

Beyond the reporting of used animals according to Article 2 Implementing Decision (EU) 2020/569 of Directive 2010/63/EU, additional data are collected every five years and transferred to the European Commission. These data include the number of animals that were bred for scientific purposes, but were killed without being used in scientific experiment of for scientific use of their organs or tissue. In Germany, these figures  are collected since the reporting year 2021 and published annually by the BfR. The next five-year report to the European Commission will be in 2023 and will include data for the reporting year2022.

The European Commission has developed Excel spreadsheets to support those subject to reporting requirements. The BfR has adapted the tables to national requirements and provides two templates into which the data can be entered.

The following spreadsheet is provided for the 2022 reporting year for the reporting of animals that have been used in accordance with Article 7 Paragraph 2 TierSchG:

• Tabelle 1_2022_Meldung von Tierversuchen nach §7 TierSchG (133.8 KB)

The following spreadsheet is provided for the 2022 reporting year for the reporting of animals that were either killed in accordance with Article 4 Paragraph 3 TierSchG or bred and killed without being used in animal experiments or for scientific purposes:

• Tabelle 2_2022_Meldung von Tötungen nach §4 TierSchG oder ohne Verwendung (130.4 KB)

The BfR asks that only these two tables are used for annual reporting of laboratory animals and that they are transferred electronically (Article 1 Pragraph 2 VersTierMeldV). However, in consultation with the competent authority, the reporting can also take place without using the tables published here.

The authorities responsible for approving animal experiments in your federal state can be found in the list displayed on this page, which we check regularly to ensure it is up-to-date. If you have any suggestions for changing or updating this list, please contact bf3r@bfr.bund.de.

A List of State Authorities Responsible for Approving Animal Experiments you can find here.

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