Funding for ILAR pain report approved

The AVMA is providing $10,000 to support updating of the pain portion of the National Academy of Sciences Institute for Laboratory Animal Research report "Recognition and Alleviation of Pain and Distress in Laboratory Animals."

In its recommendation to the Executive Board, the Animal Welfare Committee explained that the most recent ILAR report on recognizing and alleviating pain and distress in laboratory animals was published in 1992.

Although nearly 15 years old, the report is considered the most comprehensive, science-based guidance of assessing and managing pain in animals available to the veterinary research community, the AWC continued.

The ILAR plans to update and supplement its publication in two separate reports: one on pain and the other on stress and distress. The ILAR is requesting financial assistance from the AVMA in preparation of its updated report on pain, which will address several areas, including physiology of pain in commonly used laboratory species and pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic principles to control pain.

The amount of the ILAR request is less than 3 percent of the total budget for the project. Committee members therefore believe this to be a bargain, considering the published report's value to the AVMA and its members.

Additionally, funding the ILAR effort would address, in part, the needs identified in the AWC's previous recommendation, disapproved by the board, to convene an AVMA panel on pain and distress in animals.