Pain management in mice

The mouse is the most common animal species used for experimentation, and many of these animals undergo procedures that inflict pain. The recognition and assessment, and the proper alleviation of pain in mice is challenging, since mice are prey animals reluctant to display obvious signs of pain and stress. The great variety of mouse strains makes it even more difficult to recognize pain conditions, as pain related behaviour and clinical signs may vary with strain, experimental model, as well as with genetic modification. There is thus a need for defined guidelines on how to manage pain in mice undergoing potentially painful procedures. The aim of this working group is to author a review article with guidance and recommendations for the proper recognition, assessment and alleviation of pain in experimental mice. Within the ‘Pain alleviation in mice’ FELASA working group, a questionnaire has been produced for assessing the attitudes to pain in mice of the personnel involved in mouse models in which analgesia or other pain relieving methods are applied. We consider this questionnaire as the first step to identify current practice and, potentially, gaps in pain alleviation in mice thus facilitating its improvement. Link to questionnaire: https://maastrichtuniversity.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_40ovmWPda3IMXum. The anonymous questionnaire contains 4 sections with 53 questions and will take 15-20 minutes to complete. The deadline for completing the survey is July 1st, 2022.