16a. Reducing pain, suffering, and distress
What to write
Describe any interventions or steps taken in the experimental protocols to reduce pain, suffering, and distress.
Explanation
A safe and effective analgesic plan is critical to relieve pain, suffering, and distress. Untreated pain can affect the animals’ biology and add variability to the experiment; however, specific pain management procedures can also introduce variability, affecting experimental data1,2. Underreporting of welfare management procedures contributes to the perpetuation of noncompliant methodologies and insufficient or inappropriate use of analgesia2 or other welfare measures. A thorough description of the procedures used to alleviate pain, suffering, and distress provides practical information for researchers to replicate the method.
Clearly describe pain management strategies, including
- specific analgesic
- administration method (e.g., formulation, route, dose, concentration, volume, frequency, timing, and equipment used)
- rationale for the choice (e.g., animal model, disease/pathology, procedure, mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics, personnel safety)
- protocol modifications to reduce pain, suffering, and distress (e.g., changes to the anaesthetic protocol, increased frequency of monitoring, procedural modifications, habituation, etc.)
If analgesics or other welfare measures, reasonably expected for the procedure performed, are not performed for experimental reasons, report the scientific justification3.
Examples
‘If piglets developed diarrhea, they were placed on an electrolyte solution and provided supplemental water, and if the diarrhea did not resolve within 48 h, piglets received a single dose of ceftiofur (5.0 mg ceftiofur equivalent/kg of body weight i.m Excede, Zoetis, Florham Park, NJ). If fluid loss continued after treatment, piglets then received a single dose of sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim oral suspension (50 mg/8 mg per mL, Hi-Tech Pharmacal, Amityville, NY) for 3 consecutive days’4.
‘One hour before surgery, we administered analgesia to the mice by offering them nut paste (Nutella; Ferrero, Pino Torinese, Italy) containing 1 mg per kg body weight buprenorphine (Temgesic; Schering-Plough Europe, Brussels, Belgium) for voluntary ingestion, as described previously…. The mice had been habituated to pure nut paste for 2 d prior to surgery’5.
‘If a GCPS score equal or greater than 6 (out of 24) was assigned postoperatively, additional analgesia was provided with methadone 0.1 mg kg−1 IM (or IV if required) … and pain reassessed 30 minutes later. The number of methadone doses was recorded’6.
Training
The UK EQUATOR Centre runs training on how to write using reporting guidelines.
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