Alternatives Searching and Strategies for Animal Research Protocols

• USDA's Policy #11: Painful and Distressful Procedures

Policy #11 defines a painful procedure as "any procedure that would reasonably be expected to cause more than slight or momentary pain or distress in a human being to which that procedure is applied, that is, pain in excess of that caused by injections or other minor procedures." A few examples of painful/distressful procedures are listed on this page.

• USDA's Policy #12: Consideration of Alternatives to Painful/Distressful Procedures

Policy #12 details the requirement of considering alternatatives to painful and distressful procedures, recommending a database search as the most effective method to determine alternatives.

• Animal Welfare Act - Requirements for the Minimization of Pain and Distress

  W.R. DeHaven summarizes the requirements of Policies #11 and #12.

• AWIC's Pain and Distress page

A list of resources about pain management, alleviation, humane endpoints, and refinement techniques in various species

Before searching for potentially painful procedures, it is necessary to determine which procedures in the protocol have the potential to cause pain or distress. This is not always a straightforward process; these resources can be a starting point for making those determinations.

• Refinement of animal use-assessment and alleviation of pain and distress by P.A. Flecknell

"This article reviews methods of clinical pain assessment in animals, with reference to the techniques used in man. Techniques for pain alleviation are briefly reviewed."

• Recognition and Alleviation of Pain in Laboratory Animals by the National Research Council (US) Committee on Recognition and Alleviation of Pain in Laboratory Animals

Table 1-1 of this resource lists examples of painful procedures or conditions by type and anatomic location.

• A Reference Source for the Recognition & Alleviation of Pain & Distress in Animals

Complied by Dr. Richard L. Crawford of the AWIC

• Assessing the Health and Welfare of Laboratory Animals

• Consult your veterinarian!!

• List all procedures in the protocol. Based on prior observation, consultation with a veterinarian, or some of the resources listed above, determine whether a particular procedure has the potential to cause pain or distress. It is best to err on the side of caution. If you are unsure if a technique is potentially painful or distressing, it is best to include it in your search strategy. In fact, some librarians recommend searching on every procedure in a protocol.

• Each procedure should be viewed as an avenue to a goal. Considering the end result of the technique can help you to identify alternative procedures. For example, if a catheter is being used to monitor blood pressure, searching for this end result rather than the term "catheter" can possibly lead to the discovery of other techniques to accomplish the same goal.

• When searching for different procedures in the literature, it is important not to make your search too narrow. If multiple techniques will be used in a protocol, each technique should be searched separately. Oftentimes the same procedure can be used in different research fields or with different species. Adding a term such as "mouse" or "immunology" to your search can restrict your results and exclude valuable information.

• Identify other possible terms for each technique that you have identified; determine if a subject heading for each procedure exists in the database that you are using.

• Begin by searching broadly for each technique. Next, try combining each technique with some of the keywords and subject headings for pain/distress prevention and control; analgesia/anesthesia; and refinement listed on the Keywords and MeSH search pages of this guide.