Educationnal Seminar

Pain in laboratory animals is a major animal welfare problem that must be addressed. Research procedures using laboratory animals should be refined to minimize pain and distress. General anesthesia is produced using either injectable or inhalational agents, or a combination of the two methods. Balanced anesthesia is the technic in which a number of different agents are combined to produce a desired effect. Anesthetic agents can be given to produce all of these required features of general anesthesia: loss of consciousness, analgesia, muscle relaxation and suppression of reflex activity. Understanding of the pharmacological features of anesthetic agents, managing and monitoring anesthesia, post-operative care and pain assessment are necessary to protect the laboratory animals from the pain and stress of surgical intervention. In this talk, we will discuss which methods are more appropriate to minimize the pain and distress associated with the experimental procedures.