How can we assess their suffering? German research consortium aims at defining a severity assessment framework for laboratory animals

In the spring of 2017, the German research unit “Severity Assessment in Animal Based Research” was launched, funded by the German Research Foundation for an approximate total amount of €6 million. The consortium encompasses 15 different research groups within eight institutions in Germany and Switzerland, involving five different animal species (http://severity-assessment.de/).

Animal-based research must comply with the 3R principle (replace, refine, reduce), not only with regard to ethical justification of animal use but also to ensure the quality of obtained data in terms of standardization. Intrinsic to this research is the grading of pain, suffering, and distress animals experience during scientific procedures. Therefore, the assessment of severity experienced by animals has become a prerequisite for project authorization in the EU (2010/63/EU). However, scientifically-sound and routinely-applicable scales to grade severity in laboratory animals are still inadequate, leaving laboratory animals teetering on the brink of the deep gulf between current regulations and scientific knowledge.

To overcome this situation, the DFG has funded the research consortium “Severity Assessment in Animal Based Research” aimed at establishing a severity assessment framework and consequently minimizing severity in laboratory animals. Funding of this research group is ground-breaking and highly encouraging as, prospectively, severity minimization in terms of refinement is of major importance in animal based research, but has been rather underrepresented regarding 3R funding opportunities. Now, however, new perspectives can be created for the target-oriented advancement of animal welfare in science.

The highly interdisciplinary consortium is geared towards identification of objective, classifiable, and standardized severity assessment parameters for animal research models. Existing methods from various fields will be validated and refined and new methods focusing on minimally- and non-invasive surveillance techniques will be developed. Furthermore, the establishment of a scientific network bundling the efforts of interacting research groups in this field is a crucial aspect of this consortium and will also provide a platform for possible future collaborations.

In conclusion, together with animal welfare-based recommendations for severity assessment, the research unit aims to improve the quality of animal-based research data by reducing variation as well as minimizing severity experienced by laboratory animals.