What standard-of-care requirement is imposed regarding analgesia for painful procedures?

• A. Investigators must provide appropriate analgesia or anesthesia for painful procedures unless a valid scientific justification is provided for its avoidance.
• B. Analgesia is optional for all procedures.
• C. Analgesia is required only for non-human primates.
• D. Analgesia must be provided only after adverse events.

Answer: (A)

Providing pain relief for painful procedures is a fundamental part of humane animal care. Investigators must use appropriate analgesia or anesthesia to prevent or alleviate pain during such procedures. The only time analgesia can be avoided is when there is a valid scientific justification that has been reviewed and approved, showing that analgesia would undermine the study’s aims or confound the results. In practice, this means planning analgesia in the protocol, selecting species-appropriate drugs and timing (often with preemptive analgesia to reduce pain signaling), and securing oversight approval for any justification to skip analgesia. This approach aligns with regulatory and ethical standards that emphasize refinement to minimize pain and distress. Options that treat analgesia as optional, limit it to certain species, or require it only after adverse events do not reflect the standard of care.