Severe procedures

Some procedures or ‘models’ are inherently more likely to cause severe suffering.

What are severe procedures?

Some procedures are more likely to involve animals experiencing ‘severe’ physical pain, psychological distress, or feelings such as ‘sickness’ or nausea. This includes control groups in some vaccine studies, or ‘models’ of diseases that cause high levels of suffering in clinical cases. Examples of potentially severe procedures are listed in Section III of Annex VIII in Directive 2010/63/EU. More examples are listed below, based on the scientific literature and discussions with scientists, animal technologists and veterinarians working in academia and industry.

Note: these are guidance only; actual severity will depend upon experimental protocols and the efforts made to refine these.

Examples of potentially ‘severe’ procedures

Batch potency testing of vaccines (where control animals experience ‘severe’ disease symptoms) and other biologics e.g. botulinum toxin, for regulatory purposes

Studies involving infectious disease models, including the development of vaccines or other treatments, where animals may experience ‘severe’ disease symptoms

Various tests involved in regulatory toxicology, including ecotoxicology, especially where animals may become moribund or die

Monoclonal antibody production using the mouse ascites method – NB this method has not been used in the UK since 2012 but is still used elsewhere in the world

Some cancer models – involving large tumours, resection, bone metastasis, brain tumours, pancreatic tumours

Some heart disease models – myocardial infarction induction; monocrotaline (MCT)-induced pulmonary arterial hypertension; transverse aortic constriction/banding

Multi-organ failure models

Demyelination of the central nervous system (CNS)

Models of motor neurone disease (MND)

Spinal cord injury models

Neuroscience studies using non-human primates, involving the cumulative effects of numerous surgeries, regular and long periods of restraint, and/or fluid or food control