University-of-Alabama-Birmingham-President-Letter-7-13-21

Ray L Watts, M.D., President, University of Alabama, Birmingham, 1720 2nd Ave South Birmingham, AL 35294 Via Email: knburdick@uab.edu kdkirk@uab.edu 7/13/21
 President Watts, I am writing to you today because multiple serious issues of non-compliance within the animal laboratories of the University of Alabama, Birmingham (UAB), have been documented in correspondence/reports obtained by SAEN These situations demonstrate excessively faulty science, contempt for federal regulations, and contempt for the lives and well-being of animals As you may know, USDA/APHIS/AC issued a CRITICAL citation against UAB for violating 2.31(e) (4) Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) This citation followed a federal complaint filed by SAEN in January of 2021 (see: https://saenonline.org/University-of-Alabama-Birmingham-Federalcomplaint-1-12-21.html ) relevant to a cigarette smoke experiment on ferrets which resulted in several deaths (see attached USDA report) As you may also know, SAEN has filed a second federal complaint with the USDA against UAB based on an internal whistleblower report regarding:
 “*Inadequate restraint of animals for minor experimental and/or diagnostic procedures *Recording specific values in animal records, without performing the corresponding necessary measurements, e.g., pulse rate, blood pressure, weight, fluid input/output *Recording inaccurate time of drug administration in animal records.” These incidents clearly involve violations of federal regulations under the Animal Welfare Act, our full complaint is available here: https://saenonline.org/news-media-news-2021/University-of-Alabama-atBirmingham-Inspection-Report-3-2-21.html However, since these incidents involve falsification of research documents, and recording of inaccurate information, we have also filed a federal complaint with the Office of Research Integrity, which is available here: https://saenonline.org/news-media-news-2021/University-of-Alabama-Birmingham,President-Letter-and-Office-of-Research-Integrity-Complaint.html As you may also know, this is NOT the first time that UAB has dealt with the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) (see attached Case Summary) In fact, ORI previously issued a finding of Research Misconduct against a UAB researcher relevant to falsifying/fabricating the data in to the information contained in ten publications and five grant applications UAB has a history of Research Misconduct 1081-B State Route 28 #280 Milford, OH 45150 513-575-5517 www.SAENonline.org However, these are by no means the only serious animal experimentation problems which have occurred at UAB UAB correspondence dated 7/5/19 discloses that 100 animals did not receive adequate pain relief following a surgical procedure (see attached report) Similarly, UAB correspondence dated 6/17/19 discloses the suspension of an experimental project because over 200 animals were denied protocol required pain relief (see attached report) It is also worth noting that the University of Alabama, Birmingham previously retracted a journal involving primate experimentation (see attached PubMed screenshot) Collectively these incidents demonstrate a USDA finding of a CRITICAL violation of the Animal Welfare Act, an Office of Research Integrity finding of Research Misconduct which included falsification of research, a second incident of falsification of research documentation, multiple failures to provide pain relief to hundreds of animals, involving the suspension of one protocol, and an additional article retraction Collectively these incidents demonstrate widespread programmatic misconduct and non-compliance issues within the University of Alabama, Birmingham Therefore, to effectively address these issues, the Office of the President of the University of Alabama, Birmingham, must: Permanently ban all staff, still employed by UAB, connected to the incidents discussed in this correspondence from any future use of animals Permanently terminate all projects discussed in this correspondence The lab staff involved in these incidents has demonstrated either total ignorance of proper scientific procedures (in which case they should never have been allowed to even BEGIN an animal based experiment) or total contempt for proper scientific procedures (in which case they have no business performing purportedly scientific procedures) President Watts, what Principal Investigator doesn’t understand the importance of accurately recording experimental measurements (or actually performing those measurements)? What lab staff doesn’t understand the necessity of following a protocol and providing approved pain relief? How is it that UAB lab staff think they are not required to follow research protocols that have been approved by the UAB Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee, keep records? None of this should even be possible in a program of research that is even remotely scientific The fact that all of the incidents have occurred in UAB facilities within the last several years is an indictment of your system and clearly demonstrates that UAB lab staff is quite simply out of control Sincerely, ! Michael A Budkie, A.H.T., Co-Founder, SAEN Attachments: USDA Inspection report, ORI Case summary, UAB OLAW reports, Article Retraction ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !