In February 2000, Germany’s Federal Institute for Consumer Health Protection and Veterinary Medicine (BGVV-Bundesinstitut für gesundheitlichen Verbraucherschutz und Veterinärmedizin) put the ZEBET database on alternative methods to animal experiments on the Internet in English via DIMDI, the German Institute for Medical Documentation and Information ( http://www.dimdi.de/dynamic/de/index.html). ZEBET’s database key is ZT00. The access is freely licensed. For searching, the tools Free grips-WebSearch or grips-commands have to be used. The search tools for the ZEBET database are explained in the ZEBET Database Memocard in DIMDI. DIMDI’s complete service is available to visitors of the ZEBET database.
In 1989, ZEBET (Center for Documentation and Evaluation of Alternative Methods to Animal Experiments) was established at the Federal Institute for Consumer Health Protection and Veterinary Medicine (BGVV). ZEBET’s objectives are to document and validate alternative methods and also to promote their acceptance by both scientists and regulators. It is ZEBET’s prime task to reduce the number of animals used for regulatory purposes. Therefore, ZEBET is providing access to its database to scientists in industry, at research institutions, and in the regulatory environment. In addition, ZEBET is conducting in-house research and provides funds to develop and validate alternative methods.
According to the German animal protection law and EU Council Directive 86/609/EEC on the protection of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes, scientists have to prove that the goal of a study cannot be achieved without using experimental animals. Thus, it is the main objective of the ZEBET database to provide information to scientists searching for alternatives to comply with EU Directive 86/609/EEC.
The ZEBET database contains documents on alternatives to testing in animals, which have been carefully evaluated by ZEBET’s staff and which meet at least one of the following criteria:
These criteria take into account the internationally accepted “3Rs”-concept established by Bill Russell and Rex Burch in 1959 in their book The Principles of Humane Experimental Techniques. Each document of the ZEBET database contains the title of a method, keywords, assessment, summary, and bibliographic references. To date, 110 alternative methods have been finalized by ZEBET; 35 of them are currently available online on the Internet via DIMDI. ZEBET is responsible for updating the documents in the ZEBET database and for providing new ones.
For more information, contact Dr. Barbara Grune, BGVV, ZEBET, phone: +49-(0)1888 412 2271, e-mail: grune.zebet@bgvv.de.
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