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SEBiot joins the Agreement on Transparency in Animal Experimentation

SEBiot  joins the Agreement on Transparency in Animal Experimentation

The Spanish Society of Biotechnology (SEBiot) has joined the Agreement on Transparency in Animal Experimentation, promoted by the Confederation of Scientific Societies of Spain (COSCE), with the collaboration of the European Association for Animal Research (EARA), and launched on September 20, 2016.

From SEBiot, we are aware that animal research plays a fundamental role in the knowledge of the biological mechanisms involved in diseases and in the development of medical treatments. Without the use of animals in biomedical research, we would not have most of the medicines, antibiotics, vaccines and surgical techniques that are used in human and veterinary medicine today.

Part of the scientific work carried out by SEBiot members, which contributes to the improvement of people’s lives, requires the use of experimental animals. The welfare of experimental animals is a fundamental issue for SEBiot, as it is the strict respect and compliance with current legislation on the protection of animals used in experimentation and other scientific purposes, including teaching (RD 53/103). SEBiot promotes that the research carried out by its members is carried out under the highest standards of animal welfare, not only from the point of moral responsibility towards them, but also because quality science could not be achieved without animal welfare.

SEBiot defends that animal experimentation must comply with legal standards and be reviewed by an ethical animal experimentation committee, which will have to promote the use of alternative methods, the reduction of the number of animals used, and the refinement of experimental procedures. No research project that requires the use of animals must begin without the mandatory ethical evaluation and final authorization by the respective competent authority.

SEBiot is willing to collaborate in any action that can contribute to improving the knowledge of its partners about the use of experimental animals, which help to ensure that both the staff caring for the animals and the researchers involved in experimentation have the necessary training.

On the other hand, SEBiot fully supports transparency initiatives in animal experimentation aimed at fostering a greater understanding of these issues on the part of society.