Laboratory animal numbers

Since 2021, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) has had the legal mandate to collect annual data from competent authorities within Germany about animals used for scientific purposes. The BfR validates and compiles these figures and submits them to the European Commission for the protection of animals used for experiments and other scientific purposes (EU Commission). Furthermore, the BfR annually publishes the laboratory animal statistics for the Federal Republic of Germany.

In addition to the numbers of animals used in experiments, the numbers of research animals killed for scientific or other purposes are also reported annually in Germany. Also the numbers of animals killed but not used in animal experiments are collected each year. Eventhough, the EU commission requests these data only every five years, the BfR publishes them annually as part of the German laboratory animal statistics. The next data submission to the EU commission will take place in 2023 for the 2022 reporting year.