The Biological Bank of the Zoo of Barcelona is an non-profit establishment that obtains, processes, characterises, stores and distributes biological samples, for diagnostic, research or educational purposes. The Bank deals with the file of the processed material, which is stored in other centres or in the same one, storing and distributing all kinds of biological material. The main goal of the Bank is to provide the scientific community with the necessary biological material, at ideal conditions, thus assuring research competitiveness and excellence.

This project aims to focus on the consolidation of the Biological Bank of the Zoo of Barcelona, paying special attention to dissemination, and therefore increasing its accessibility and improving the organization, in order to make its management more efficient. The Biological Bank of the Zoo of Barcelona contributes to improve the human knowledge on animal species and the development of techniques, instruments or new technologies that allow an enrichment of the research and awareness of the field of animal science.

So far, many samples from a great variety of animals have been sent. Among them, the most important ones are biological material from primates and camelids, as well as felines, marsupials, columbiformes, turtles, elephants, canidae, caprinae and otаriidae. Although blood samples request is the most common one, some other noteworthy requests are of tissue (frozen or waxed), hair and stool. The samples have been provided for different scientific purposes, most of them closely related to the research, although some have been made lately for educational purposes.