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History of the NCad

In the Netherlands, many parties work together to promote the responsible use of animals in education and research. These include the government, academia, the private sector and civil society organisations. The Netherlands has already achieved much in this area, but there is still room for improvement.

The Experiments on Animals Act came into force in 1977. This act protects the health of laboratory animals and defines the rules that apply to animal experiments. The act also sets requirements for the competence of staff who work with laboratory animals.

The Experiments on Animals Act was changed on 18 December 2014, when the Directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes was implemented in Dutch law. This directive removed the differences in the approaches of the European member states to animal experiments, laboratory animals and the 3Rs. However, all the rules of the Experiments on Animals Act from before 2014 remained valid, and are still so to this day. Some of these rules are in fact stricter than in the European Directive. You can read more about the rules that apply in the Netherlands here.

The European Directive lays down a number of requirements that every EU country must meet. For example, each country is required to establish a national committee for the protection of animals used for scientific purposes. The committee:

  • advises responsible organisations and the animal welfare bodies on the procurement, breeding, housing, care and species of animals used in procedures
  • shares best practices
  • shares information with the other committees on the functioning of the animal welfare bodies and the evaluation of projects involving animal experiments

The ‘Netherlands National Committee for the protection of animals used for scientific purposes’ (NCad) was established on 18 December 2014. Some of the NCad’s responsibilities previously fell under the National Knowledge Centre for Alternatives to Animal Use (NKCA). All other responsibilities of the former NKCA have been assumed by RIVM and Utrecht University.