Advice on severity assessment of genetically altered animals

The UK Government has issued advice on severity assessment of genetically altered animals regulated under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. The advice covers specific issues relevant to the assessment of severity of animals on 'breeding and maintenace protocols' under the UK legislation.

The Advice covers:

• Statistical reporting of genetically altered animals
• General principles of severity assessment in genetically altered animals
• Counting offspring
• Severity assessment
• Non-procedural harms
• Procedural harms
• Example of prospective and actual severity assessment for a genetically altered animal breeding protocol
• Severity classification (Mild, Moderate & Severe)
• Common examples of likely sub-threshold severity classification

Since this Act has been revised in order to transpose the EU Directive 2010/63, these notes are of interest to other European countries also.

The Advice can be downloaded here. The Home Office has also published advisory notes on recording and reporting the actual severity of procedures.

See also the PREPARE guidelines for planning animal experiments.