The University of Tennessee Health Science Center - Department of Comparative Medicine

Experimentation Involving Pain

The the Animal Welfare Act requires that painful or stressful experimentation on animals be relieved or moderated by the use of analgesics, anesthetics, or tranquilizers when these agents will not interfere with the experimental objectives. Animal study protocols must indicate the drug(s) and dose to be used. If pain or stress is unavoidable and such drugs are contraindicated by the nature of the study, the principal investigator must write a justification for review by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. The level of pain for which it is necessary to use chemical relief is generally anything more intense than the pain associated with injection of the drug. A procedure is regarded as painful if it produces abnormal escape behavior in the animal, results in significant tissue damage, or would be interpreted as painful if done in humans.

The DCM has a guide for selection and use of anesthetics, analgesics, and tranquilizers. Many of these are controlled agents and require a DEA license, a locked storage area, and careful records of their use.