The use of animals in the development of COVID-19 vaccines is “essential”, according to the COSCE Agreement

The use of animals in research has been “essential” in recent months to obtain vaccines against COVID-19, according to the Confederation of Scientific Societies of Spain (COSCE), because “without experimentation on animals there would be no no vaccine against the virus ”.

This was stated this Tuesday at the press conference of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) the president of the Ethics Committee of the Higher Council for Scientific Research and representative of the Public Research Bodies in the Commission THIGHS, Lluis Montoliu, during the presentation of the fourth Annual Report of the Agreement THIGHS of Transparency on the Use of Animals for Scientific Experimentation in Spain, which analyzes, through a survey, the degree of compliance with each of the contemplated commitments.

The event had the participation of the president of the THIGHS, Perla Wahnón, who has been accompanied by the IDIBELL researcher and member of the Life and Health Sciences of the COSCE Governing Board, Isabel Fabregat; and the member of the Governing Board of the European Research Association (EARA, European Association for Animal Research), Javier Guillén.

About the Agreement THIGHS, experts have evidenced the consolidation of transparency activities, despite the pandemic and its impact, which has led to an increase of 15 institutions that have joined the project in 2021, so that the total number of institutions adhering to the Agreement is 153.

In total, as explained by Guillén, the survey has been answered by 140 institutions and it has been found that 71 percent of the institutions have published news on their website related to animal experimentation and 77 percent have presented to the media of communication scientific advances, where animals have been protagonists.

“The institutions have turned much more than in previous years to participate and share their examples of transparency with the rest of the community”, Javier Guillén has stated, adding that the increase in institutions may have been the result of the development of vaccines against COVID-19.

In addition, Javier Guillén has argued that the 153 institutions have a public institutional declaration on their web pages, where they declare their use with animals and for what purposes. Regarding the report, 99 percent of the institutions consider that transparency is important for research, therefore, 51 percent acknowledge having images about experimentation to provide more information while 30 percent also include videos and a 24 percent indicate the number of species they use in their tests.

One of the points in which the institutions adhering to the Agreement THIGHS they still have to work, according to Guillén, it is in the existence of a defined communication policy on animal research, since only 20 percent of them claim to have a communication policy to know how to answer and how to relate to requests for information .

The use of animals falls by 46%

For his part, Lluis Montoliu, during his speech, revealed that the use of animals for research has been reduced by 46 percent in Spain, where in 2020 there have been more than 700,000 uses of animals in different applications but mostly in research .

“The ultimate goal is for society to be informed and have rigorous information on why animals are used in research. We must normalize a situation that a few years ago was not discussed and that the legislation is complied with “, has asserted.

Vivotecnia case

Last April some images about the laboratory were released Vivotecnia , which showed how Beagle dogs, monkeys, mice, rabbits and pigs were attacked to carry out some tests. This laboratory belonged to the COSCE Agreement.

On this issue, experts have indicated that they were very angry about it and from the moment the images were uncovered they showed their rejection. “We are a commission in which we all participate in an altruistic way because of our commitment to transparency in the use of animals in experimentation. When we found out, we called the leaders of the Vivotecnia company and the same day we separated them “experts have explained.

However, Lluis Montoliu has acknowledged that he understands the commotion caused and has regretted that the images “They will ruin the work of many years”, while acknowledging the “unease” caused in the sector.

“We do not promote that, it is not a responsible and honest investigation. Surely this could have affected new adhesions but it is an exception. The vast majority of the institutions comply with their wishes and we have to continue down this path “, he concluded.

Source: Europa Press