Universidad de Murcia (Spain)

UMU – University of Murcia – is a one-hundred-year-old institution that traces its origins to the 13th century. UMU is a public comprehensive university teaching around 33.000 students over 5 campuses, 21 Faculties and 6 Institutes of Research, which make UMU a reference centre for teaching and research in the Mediterranean coast.

The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Murcia started developing laboratory animal research more than 30 years ago. Throughout this time, UMU has implemented shaped improvements in experimental protocols, in animal holding facilities and techniques of breeding, care and management of laboratory animals. It is one of the only two centres authorised in Spain to carry out research projects on xenografts with non-human primates. Nowadays it represents one of the reference facilities in Spain to carry out procedures with live models.

Furthermore, UMU has state-of-the-art animal facilities, and specialised or training persons working with laboratory animals. It provides facilities for carrying out from basic techniques (administration and sampling), short and long-term treatments, and surgical and microsurgical approaches, and non-invasive imaging techniques such as fluorescence, bioluminescence, ultrasound, SPECT, and CT. A platform of pathological anatomy and comparative animal histopathology are also available. A proven platform is also available to carryout procedures with radioactive tracers.

In the last years, the University of Murcia has taught several courses for training of people involved in research procedures, working on either practical or theoretical fields with various animal models, from fish (zebrafish), rodents (mice, rat, hamster and degus), large animal models (canine and swine), up to non-human primates, etc. Those courses are organized to abide for the requirements established by the European legal framework (63/2010/UE Directive) and national one (Spain RD 53/2013).

Besides, UMU has been recognised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock as Official Qualified Board for the Assessment of Research Projects involving experimental research on animals. On this point is noteworthy that the UM is accredited to assign the severity of procedures, thus complying with the new legal framework.