News
08.02.2024Transparency in Animal Experimentation
Sergi Vila, a technician from the Animal Facilities of the CCiTUB, has published the article " En experimentación animal debemos ser muy transparentes " in The The Conversation jointly with experts from other institutions.
The article discusses the need to promote the development of alternative methods to animal experimentation and the commitment to provide society with detailed, rigorous, and up-to-date information on how, where, and why animals are used in research.
European regulations govern the reduction of this activity, which is carried out only in cases where there is no alternative, using the minimum number of animals and employing the most optimized care and experimentation methods. Similarly, both European and Spanish regulations express in their justification that the ultimate goal of these laws is to put an end to the use of animals in experiments. However, they indicate that this prohibition will be applied when scientifically feasible.
COSCE Agreement
Recent regulations have promoted interest in improving the information provided to society, and as a result, in 2016, the COSCE agreement for transparency in animal experimentation was promoted.
In this agreement, currently signed by 166 institutions, including the University of Barcelona, participating entities commit to:
- Clearly communicate when, how, and why animals are used in research.
- Provide adequate information to the media and the general public about the conditions under which research requiring the use of animal models is conducted and the resulting outcomes.
- Promote initiatives that generate greater knowledge and understanding in society about the use of animals in scientific research.
- Report annually on progress and share experiences.