Abstract
Objective
To investigate the current scenario in Brazil regarding pain assessment and control
in experimental animals.
Study design
Prospective survey.
Methods
A confidential questionnaire was available online and sent by e-mail to Brazilian
scientists working with animal experimentation in Brazil. Data collection was conducted
from October 2016 to October 2017. The exclusion criteria included blank questionnaires
or with <80% completed responses, researchers not performing experiments involving
animals and foreign scientists.
Results
A total of 96 questionnaires from 104 respondents were analyzed. The Fisher’s exact
test showed a disparity between the proportions of scientists who recognized the importance
of analgesia and their application of analgesic techniques in painful procedures (p < 0.0003), and also for the researchers who assumed that experiments inflicted pain
and their classification of the degree of invasiveness (p < 0.0001), indicating their insufficient knowledge of these topics. Overall, 77%
of institutions did not offer specific training to assess pain in experimental animals,
and 24% of respondents had no training to work with animal experimentation. In total,
62% of the studies inflicted pain, 48% of respondents used pain scales, and the drugs
administered most frequently for pain management were morphine (44%), meloxicam (43%)
and tramadol (37%); 15% of respondents did not include analgesics even though their
studies inflicted pain. Commonly used animals were rats (33%), mice (29%) and rabbits
(8%).
Conclusions and clinical relevance
The results of this preliminary survey indicated that in Brazil there is a gap in
the knowledge and training on pain assessment and management of experimental animals.
Therefore, there is a necessity for an educational program to prepare and train scientists
to assess and manage pain in laboratory or experimental animals. Further studies using
a psychometrically validated survey instrument are warranted.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 10, 2020
Accepted:
May 12,
2020
Received:
December 14,
2019
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 Association of Veterinary Anaesthetists and American College of Veterinary Anesthesia and Analgesia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
