The EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) has today sent a letter of formal notice to Iceland requesting the country to correctly apply EEA rules on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes as regards the blood collection from pregnant mares.

ESA informed the Icelandic authorities in April 2022 that it had received a complaint against Iceland concerning its rules on the collection of blood from pregnant mares for the production of the Pregnant Mare Serum Gonadotropin hormone (PMSG), also called Equine Chorionic Gonadotropin (eCG). The PMSG/eCG hormone is used to increase and manage fertility in farmed animals such as pigs, sheep, goats and cattle. After having received information from Iceland, ESA has identified several breaches of EEA rules related to the country’s practices.

In its letter, ESA concludes that Iceland has failed to fulfil its obligations under the EEA Directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes by not following the processes and assessments set out in the Directive. The aim of the Directive is to improve minimum standards for the welfare of animals used in scientific procedures, with the objective of reducing their use in as much as possible.

In line with that aim, the Directive prescribes for certain safeguards that need to be ensured when deciding whether or not to authorise a project. As Iceland is of the opinion that blood collection from pregnant mares does not fall under the scope of the Icelandic regulation implementing the Directive these safeguards are not being applied as such in practice. As an example, a project evaluation in line with the Directive is not carried out before a project is authorised. That entails, amongst other things, that it cannot be ensured that an assessment is carried out of whether a scientifically satisfactory method, not involving the use of live animals, can be used instead. Similarly, the project evaluation is necessary to balance the likely harm of the animal against the expected benefits of the project.

ESA finds, too, that by adopting a new national regulation on the collection of blood from pregnant mares in August 2022, Iceland has created further legal uncertainty concerning blood collection from pregnant mares and failed to ensure the effectiveness of the Directive.

A letter of formal notice is the first step in an infringement procedure against an EEA EFTA State. The Icelandic Government now has two months to express its views before ESA decides whether to take the case further.

Read ESA’s letter of formal notice here.

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