COSCE Agreement | Experimental Surgery and Animal Facility
Institutional Statement on the Use of Experimental Animals
The Institut d'Investigació Sanitària Illes Balears (IdISBa) endorses the transparency policy on animal experimentation promoted by the Confederation of Scientific Societies of Spain (COSCE), in collaboration with the European Animal Research Association (EARA), and adheres to the agreement approved on 7 June 2016.
At IdISBa, we recognise that animal research plays a fundamental role in understanding the biological mechanisms involved in diseases and in developing medical treatments. Without the use of animals, most of the medicines, antibiotics, vaccines, and surgical techniques used in both human and veterinary medicine would not exist.
A significant part of the scientific work carried out at IdISBa, which contributes to improving people's lives, is made possible through the use of animals. This includes the development of IdISBa's own research projects as well as continuous training courses for resident and senior physicians at the hospitals that make up IdISBa, with the aim of updating and improving surgical techniques. The main projects undertaken in IdISBa's animal facility are framed within research on cancer, congenital heart diseases, and mental disorders such as schizophrenia.
Animal welfare is a top priority for IdISBa, as is the strict compliance with current legislation on the protection of animals used in experimentation and other scientific purposes, including teaching.
Our goal is to achieve the highest standards of animal welfare-not only from a moral responsibility standpoint, but also in terms of the scientific quality directly linked to animal welfare.
Our animal experimentation activities fully comply with legal standards and are reviewed by an Animal Experimentation Ethics Committee, which promotes the use of alternative methods, the reduction in the number of animals used, and the refinement of experimental procedures. No research project involving animals may begin without the required ethical evaluation and final authorization from the relevant competent authority.
IdISBa also ensures that both the personnel responsible for animal care and the researchers involved in animal experimentation have the necessary training and expertise, and is committed to providing the resources necessary for the proper operation and maintenance of the facilities, as well as the feeding, welfare, and veterinary care of experimental animals.
IdISBa has implemented several initiatives aimed at increasing Transparency in Animal Research. In particular, it has disseminated informative notes in the media to raise public awareness about the conditions under which research involving animal models is conducted in its facilities and the benefits resulting from such research.
Our objective is to continue promoting these actions to enhance transparency regarding our animal experimentation activities and to develop new initiatives to keep the scientific community and the general public informed about improvements in procedures and best practices in this field.
It is also IdISBa's aim to continue working towards transparency in animal research by organising open‑door events to show both the scientific community and society at large the strict compliance with good practice standards and current legislation on the protection of animals used in experimentation and other scientific purposes in the research carried out at IdISBa.