National Antivisection Society
Questions over pain relief in experiments
26 April 2010
A paper in the journal Laboratory Animals recently cast a shadow over the use of analgesia in laboratory situations and its appropriate use in experimental animals.
The research assessed how frequently analgesia was used, which agents were used and determined if this use was related to the severity of the procedure. The papers included in the review covered thoracotomies, orthopaedic procedures, skin incisions, craniotomy, laparotomy and burn studies. In total, 149 papers were reviewed, 74 from 2000-2001 and 75 from 2005-2006. The articles came from 61 different journals.
The paper highlighted worrying laxity in reporting procedures, which included:
- “dose was often given in mL/animal or mg/animal rather than mg/kg”
- “In both time periods, duration of systemic analgesia administration was not specified in 46% of papers that reported the use of a systemic analgesic”
- “When the administration of a systemic analgesic was specified, the frequency of systemic analgesic administration was not specified in the majority of cases (68% of papers in both time periods)”
- “There was a wide reported dose range of analgesics for many species” – the authors explain how, in rabbits, with one compound, the dose “varied by 30-fold”, which “suggests uncertainty about dose”
- Duration of analgesic administration did not always increase with the severity of the procedure. The authors concluded that “duration of analgesic administration may often be inappropriate”
- Eight papers stated analgesia was given “as necessary”, but none described how pain was assessed or the signs that were used as indicators of pain.
In the discussion, the authors state that “given the sensitivity surrounding the use of animals in experiments, particularly when they involve non-human primates and companion species such as dogs, it is surprising that some peer-reviewed papers still do not report the administration of any form of analgesic.”
The paper states how “overall, rabbits, pigs, sheep, dogs and non-human primates were more likely to receive analgesics following potentially painful experimental procedures than has been reported in laboratory rodents but analgesic administration to ‘large’ laboratory species is still not optimal.”
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Coulter, C.A. et al (2009) “Reported analgesic administration to rabbits, pigs, sheep, dogs and non-human primates undergoing experimental surgical procedures”, Laboratory Animals, vol.43, pp.232-238
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