Aversive learning, conditioned avoidance behaviour and conflict tests
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Source |
Non-harmful / below threshold / severity degree 0 | Mild / severity degree 1 | Moderate / severity degree 2 | Severe / severity degree 3 |
| Directive 2010/63/EU, Annex VIII |
Models which expose animals to noxious stimuli which are briefly associated with mild pain, suffering or distress, and which the animals can successfully avoid. | Evoking escape and avoidance reactions where the animal is unable to escape or avoid the stimulus, and are expected to result in moderate distress. | ||
| Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office FSVO (2018) |
Models with stimuli/noxae which are not associated with anxiety and which the animal can successfully avoid. Examples: Passive avoidance test. Active avoidance test with stimuli intensity <0.5 mA for 1s. Gfeller-Seifert conflict test and Vogel water lick test with stimuli intensity <0.5 mA for 1s. Startle response. |
Models with stimuli/noxae which are briefly associated with moderate pain, suffering or anxiety and which the animals can successfully avoid, or which are associated with mild pain, suffering or anxiety which the animals cannot avoid. Examples: Passive avoidance test. Active avoidance test with stimuli intensity >0.5 mA for 1s. Gfeller-Seifert conflict test and Vogel water lick test with stimuli intensity >0.5 mA for 1s Shuttle box. Fear conditioning. |
Behavioural experiments causing severe strain. Examples: Forced swim test (Porsolt test) in small rodents. Audiometry in the conscious mouse. Chronic social instability. Chronic social defeat. |
|
| Working Group of Berlin Animal Welfare Officers (2010) | Positive conditioning. |
Models with short-term mild pain, suffering, or fears; ability for the animal to successfully avoid the situation. |
Models with short-term moderate pain, suffering, or fears; ability for the animal to successfully avoid the situation. |
Models with severe pain, suffering, or fears; inability for the animal to avoid the situation. |
Deprivation - social
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Source |
Non-harmful / below threshold / severity degree 0 | Mild / severity degree 1 | Moderate / severity degree 2 | Severe / severity degree 3 |
| Directive 2010/63/EU, Annex VIII |
Studies involving short-term deprivation of social partners, short-term solitary caging of adult rats or mice of sociable strains. | Complete isolation for prolonged periods of social species e.g. dogs and non-human primates. |
||
| Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office FSVO (2018) |
Deprivation of social partners (excluding separation of parents and offspring) with olfactory, visual and acoustic contact with conspecifics. Examples:Solitary housing of adult rats or adult female mice for max. 7 days. |
Examples: Contact call in chicks. Separation of pair-bonded hamsters. | Total, permanent social isolation (incl. olfactory, optical and acoustic) of individuals of gregarious vertebrate species. Solitary housing of young animals up to normal weaning age. | |
| Working Group of Berlin Animal Welfare Officers (2010)* * With two factors combined, the stress level is upgraded automatically. |
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Overpopulation. Fight-induced damage. Complete isolation of social animals up to 1 week. |
Overpopulation, death caused by stress, complete isolation of social animals from 1 week on. |
Deprivation - sleep
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Source |
Non-harmful / below threshold / severity degree 0 | Mild / severity degree 1 | Moderate / severity degree 2 | Severe / severity degree 3 |
| Working Group of Berlin Animal Welfare Officers (2010) | Changing of illumination phases with slightly extended dark phases and short-term disruption of sleep behaviour. | Changing of illumination phases with moderately extended dark phases and medium-term disruption of sleep behaviour. | Changing of illumination phases with highly extended dark phases. |
Deprivation - motion and mobility
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Source |
Non-harmful / below threshold / severity degree 0 | Mild / severity degree 1 | Moderate / severity degree 2 | Severe / severity degree 3 |
| Directive 2010/63/EU, Annex VIII |
Assessing body composition by non-invasive measures and minimal restraint. | Immobilisation stress to induce gastric ulcers or cardiac failure in rats. | ||
| Working Group of Berlin Animal Welfare Officers (2010) | According to husbandry regulations. | Below the requirements of husbandry regulations, up to 24 hours. | Below the requirements of husbandry regulations, more than 24 hours and up to 7 days maximum. | Considerably below the requirements of husbandry regulations, up to 4 weeks maximum. |
Pharmacologically induced behaviour
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Source |
Non-harmful / below threshold / severity degree 0 | Mild / severity degree 1 | Moderate / severity degree 2 | Severe / severity degree 3 |
| Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office FSVO (2018) |
Models with induction of complex modifications in behaviour or physiology. Examples: Induction of a flight reflex. Oxotremorine test (tremor and salivation). Reserpine catalepsy. Cocaine. Amphetamine hyperactivity. 5-HTP stereotypies. Apomorphine climbing. Apomorphine hypothermia. Reserpine hypothermia. |
Examples: Valproic acid animal model of autism. |
Exercise
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Source |
Non-harmful / below threshold / severity degree 0 | Mild / severity degree 1 | Moderate / severity degree 2 | Severe / severity degree 3 |
| Directive 2010/63/EU, Annex VIII |
Forced swim or exercise tests with exhaustion as the end point. | |||
| Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office FSVO (2018) |
Testing the coordination skills of animals. Examples: Grip test. Voluntary wheel exercise, e.g. with defined resistance variation and/or variable rod distances with or without positive reinforcement. |
Short-term forced exercise causing mild strain, without overexertion and without electrical stimulation. Examples: Treadmill exercise using air-puff. Calorimetric wheel, after adequate adaptation to the experimental situation. Wheel exercise causing moderate strain, e.g. with defined resistance variation and/or variable rod distances and with negative reinforcement. |
Forced exercise causing moderate strain without overexertion. Examples: Treadmill exercise with electrical stimulation up to max. 1mA/sec. without exhaustion. |
Examples: Treadmill exercise to exhaustion by means of electrostimulation VO2 max or endurance test on a treadmill. |
Specific behaviour tests
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Source |
Non-harmful / below threshold / severity degree 0 | Mild / severity degree 1 | Moderate / severity degree 2 | Severe / severity degree 3 |
| Directive 2010/63/EU, Annex VIII |
Open field testing. | |||
| Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office FSVO (2018) |
Exclusively observation of the animals or collection of data by other non-invasive methods (no protracted coercive measures, no restricted holding conditions, no interventions or administration of test substances). |
Observation of the animals or collection of data by other non-invasive methods after administration of pharmacologically active test substances (in non-toxic doses, no other interventions, no protracted coercive measures). Examples: Determination of the effects of substances in the open-field test, labyrinth tests including Morris water maze, or the staircase test. |
External telemetry devices
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Source |
Non-harmful / below threshold / severity degree 0 | Mild / severity degree 1 | Moderate / severity degree 2 | Severe / severity degree 3 |
| Directive 2010/63/EU, Annex VIII |
Application of external telemetry devices that cause only minor impairment to the animals or minor interference with normal activity and behaviour. |
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