Welfare assessment and monitoring

Pavlos Lelovas
DVM, MSc, PhD
Laboratory for Research of the Musculoskeletal System,
School of Medicine, University of Athens
 Goals
• Recognise abnormal behaviour and signs of
discomfort, pain, suffering, or distress, as well
as signs of positive well-being
• Principles of how pain, suffering and distress
can be managed.
• Consider methods available for assessing and
recording the welfare of animals.
 Introduction
• Laboratory animals should behave according
to species specific normal behavioural,
morphologic and physiologic values.
 Urinary system
• Dilute production of urine
• Excretion of lipocalin

Protein

Transport Acts as a Primary

pheromones pheromone allergen
 Thermoregulation
• Temperature regulation
 Laboratory Rodents

While the use of species-typical behaviour as a

normative tool is invaluable, it does have limitations.
For example some species-specific behaviours such as
severe aggression cannot be recreated (or allowed to
be expressed) in the laboratory animal facility.
Species specific normative ranges have been
established for many parameters and can be
obtained from laboratory animal suppliers.
 Stress vs Distress
• Stress is defined as the effect produced by
external events or internal factors called
stressors, which induce an alteration in an
animal's biological equilibrium
• Distress is an aversive state in which an animal is
unable to adapt completely to stressors and the
resulting distress is manifested as a maladaptive
behaviour or the animal has to devote substantial
effort or resources to the adaptive response
 Distress or Suffering
• Suffering is not identical to, but might be a
consequence of distress or pain.
• Physical pain or distress may result in suffering if they
are of sufficient intensity or duration, or both.
• Physical pain has to reach a level beyond the pain
tolerance threshold, or distress has to pass the level
that the animal is able to cope with
 Causes of distress
• Temperature • Pain
• Light • Novelty
• Sound • Exercise
• Thirst • Disease
• Hunger
 Definition
• Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional
experience associated with actual or potential
tissue damage, or described in terms of such
damage (IASP 1979)

• Unless the contrary is established, procedures

that cause pain or distress in humans should be
consider as painful to other animals

• Pain is difficult to assess, mostly because of lack

of methods to validate and objectively measure it
 Difficulties in assessing pain
• Pain and distress are not discrete states, but are a
continuum of experience
• Signs differ between species, and most animals hide
signs of pain
• There is a lack of specific behavioural indicators of
pain
• Interobserver variability can be broad
• There is a tendency to anthropomorphise
 Difficulties in assessing pain
• Assessment varies with the scale used, and can
be very subjective

• Absence of pre-procedural scoring, results in lack

of validation scores (operation/analgesic)

• Chronic signs can be subtle and hard to detect

If so difficult to assess why not use an
analgesic in all situations
• Variation of efficacy due to
➢ species
➢ strains
➢ sexes
➢ individuals
• If unnecessary or high dose
➢Side-effects
Evaluation of pain in unanaesthetised
animals
 Subjective evaluation
Behavioural signs indicative of pain
• Apathy • Polyphagia
• Unkempt coat /piloerection • Pica
• Overgrooming • Aggression
• Dyskinesia • Vocalisation
• Dysbasia • Blepharospasm
• Hyperkinesia • Dyspnoea/Tachypnoea
• Kyphosis • Chromodacryorrhea
• Polyouria/polydipsia • Acoprosis
• Self trauma • Stereotypic behaviours
• Brouxism • Dehydration
• Anorexia
 Subjective evaluation
Facial expressions indicative of pain
 Methods of evaluating behavioural
signs of pain
• Score sheets are used in order to overcome the
subjective evaluation and to assist performance of
standardised, quantitative, and comprehensive
evaluations of animals in pain or in distress
 Objective evaluation
Physiologic signs indicative of pain
• Blood pressure • Body weight
• Heart rate
• Food consumption
• Respiratory rate
• Body temperature • Water consumption

These methods are objective, reliable and reproducible and

invaluable as far as the assessment of pain is concerned, especially
for the evaluation and effectiveness of various analgesic agents
Methods of evaluating physiologic
signs indicative of pain

https://www.mcgill.ca/research/researchers/compliance/animal/training/theorycourse/basiclevel
 Strategies for recognising pain in
groups of rodents
• Another approach is the prediction of pain
intensity based on that procedure's dysphoria
in companion animal species or in humans or
on literature reviews or on pilot study results
 Pain
Mild Mild to moderate Moderate to severe
Catheter implantation Minor laparotomy incisions Trauma models
Tail clipping Thyroidectomy Thoracotomy
Ear notching Orchidectomy Vertebral procedures

Superficial tumor Embryo transfer Heterotopic organ

implantation transplanation
Orbital sinus venotomy Hypophysectomy Burn procedures

Superficial Thymectomy Major laparotomy/organ

lymphadenectomy incision

Multiple ID antigen Orthopedic procedures

injections
Intracerebral electrode
implantation
Vasectomy
Guidelines for the assessment and management of pain in rodents and rabbits. J Am Assoc Lab Anim Sci.
2007;46:97-108
 Avoiding or minimizing distress
• Housing
➢Ambient light
➢Noise
➢Extreme fluctuations in temperature
• Enrichment
• Husbandry
• Socialisation
• Training
• Humane endpoints
 Management of pain
• Management of pain can either prevented (pre-
emptive), or recognised and alleviated (post-
inductive).
• Pre-emptive analgesia presumes that the pain will
result and that strategies should be implemented
prior to the induction of pain.
• Post-inductive analgesia is the administration of pain
relief after pain been induced and observed.
• Regardless of the pain management strategy used,
animals must be evaluated to ensure that pain has
been alleviated
 Management of pain

Non-pharmacologic
Pharmacologic agents
agents

Deeper/softer bedding
NSAIDs Feeding strategies
Opiods Dimmer lights
Local anaesthetics Warmer temperature
Nursing care