Pain Management for Animals Used in Science: Views of Scientists and Veterinarians in Canada

Abstract

Simple SummaryVeterinarians, veterinarian-scientists and scientists (all engaged in animal-based studies in Canada) were interviewed to explore the challenges and opportunities for laboratory animal pain management. Our broader aim was to contribute to further discussion of how pain can be minimized for animals used in science. Recognizing when animals are in pain continues to present a challenge, and there does not seem to be consensus on the signs of pain. Clarification of the interactions between scientific objectives and pain management are needed, as well as a stronger evidence base for pain management approaches. Detailed examination of pain management for individual invasive animal models in order to develop model-specific pain management protocols may be useful.AbstractTo explore the challenges and opportunities for pain management for animals used in research an interview study with 9 veterinarians, 3 veterinarian-scientists and 9 scientists, all engaged in animal-based studies in Canada, was carried out. Our broader aim was to contribute to further discussion of how pain can be minimized for animals used in science. Diverse views were identified regarding the ease of recognizing when animals are in pain and whether animals hide pain. Evidence of inconsistencies in pain management across laboratories, institutions and species were also identified. Clarification of the interactions between scientific objectives and pain management are needed, as well as a stronger evidence base for pain management approaches. Detailed examination of pain management for individual invasive animal models may be useful, and may support the development of model-specific pain management protocols.

Clinical Management of Pain in Rodents

“…For new procedures or models with unknown outcomes, it can be useful to conduct detailed individual assessments on a few animals and then generalize these findings to develop a robust scoring system and appropriate pain treatment plan for the larger cohort. 58 Because pain and response to treatment can differ between sexes of animals, between animals of different ages, and even between genetically similar animals, 115,154 each rodent should be monitored directly after treatment for signs of comfort and wellbeing that indicate a pain-free state. This includes evaluating normal postures, social interactions, grooming, nest-building (in the case of mice), general activity, and food and water intake.…”

Opportunities for refinement in neuroscience: Indicators of wellness and post-operative pain in laboratory macaques

“…This may be for several possible reasons. Firstly, it may be that behavior is a relatively poor indicator of pain in NHPs (Allison et al, 2007), or secondly, that the animals in the study are masking their pain (Fenwick et al, 2014;Gaither et al, 2014) due to the presence of care staff and other macaques in the vicinity. A third possibility is that actual pain states do not align with the predicted pain states within periods.…”

“…Some pain reactions are likely to be automatic protective responses (Sneddon et al, 2014), but the expression of pain may benefit individuals by recruiting assistance from conspecifics (Langford et al, 2006;de Waal, 2008) although empirical evidence that it serves this function is limited. However, many animal species including primates are thought to "hide" their pain as a survival-enhancing strategy, making pain identification challenging (Plesker and Mayer, 2008;Murdoch et al, 2013;Fenwick et al, 2014;Gaither et al, 2014). Furthermore, distinguishing chronic pain presents an even greater challenge than for acute pain because it can be difficult to obtain a pain-free baseline for comparison (Brearley and Brearley, 2000), and there is the potential that other associated negative affective states (e.g., depression) will trigger or amplify the pain experience and diminish pain recognition and treatment (Bair et al, 2003).…”

Supportive care for animals on toxicology studies: An industrial best practices survey conducted by the IQ 3Rs TPS CRO Outreach Working Group

“…Elective euthanasia of animals, rather than providing supportive care, was entered by a single respondent as a free text response, indicating the variability in decision making around supportive care. 25 Notably, none of the respondents cited resources, or need to maintain a certain group size for interpretation as reasons to withhold supportive care. Greater information sharing on regulatory feedback on supportive care could enable institutions to make better quality decisions surrounding supportive care.…”