Laboratory Animal Welfare Workshop 2: Managing Post-Operative Pain and Distress in Rodents and Rabbits

Introduction

Scheduling

• Participants will be required to review pre-recorded seminars prior to attending a series of live sessions.
• Participants can easily schedule their viewing of the pre-recorded materials, which are divided into independent video segments lasting 15–30 minutes each.
• Participants may find it helpful to review some of the e-learning materials and recommended reading before the live sessions.

Live sessions are scheduled as below

• Day 1 – June 2nd – 14:00 to 16:00 (UK time)
• Day 2 – June 3rd – 14:00 to 16:00 (UK time)
• Day 3 – June 4th – 14:00 to 16:00 (UK time)
• Day 4 – June 5th – 14:00 to 16:00 (UK time)

Cost

• The registration fee for the workshop is £300 GBP and links to register can be found at the bottom of this page.
• The number of participants will be restricted so that the interactive sessions remain manageable.
• A discount of £100 can be claimed if you register for both Workshop 1 and Workshop 2. Workshop 1 deals with broader concepts of animal welfare, sources of pain and distress and the practical application of this knowledge to optimise animal welfare.
• 1-year access to Research Animal Training included

Content

• Over 7 hours of pre-recorded seminars.
• 4 live sessions, each of 90–150 minutes, including time for Q & A and general discussions.
• Supporting e-learning modules on Pain management and Pain Assessment.
• Additional reading and reference material.
• All pre-recorded content is available in advance of the workshop, and a suggested timetable for completion will be provided.
• Participants will be able to access all content (after its release date) for a period of 3 months.
• Registration for the workshop also includes access to all of the other training materials on the RAT website.

Interactivity

The pre-recorded content and e-learning modules will be accessible on www.researchanimaltraining.com, while live sessions will take place on the Zoom video platform (zoom.us). For an engaging interactive experience, we incorporate Mentimeter (mentimeter.com) during the sessions.

While not mandatory, having a smartphone or tablet in addition to a laptop can enhance your experience during the interactive sessions.

Topics Covered

• What is pain and distress? – An introduction to what we know about pain and distress in people and animals, and an explanation of some of the concepts relevant to assessing animal welfare.
• Why we need to assess post-operative and acute pain and how to do it – An overview of how methods of assessing post-operative pain have evolved, and an up-to-date summary of the methods that can be used in rodents and rabbits.
• Cage-side methods of pain assessment – A series of live webinars which will enable participants to practice pain-scoring techniques, focusing on assessing pain-related behaviour and assessing pain faces in rats, mice and rabbits.
• Pain, nociception and how analgesics work – How different types of analgesic act to reduce or eliminate pain, with links to our understanding of nociception and pain in animals.
• Analgesics – what to give, when and how – A review of the practicalities of managing pain in a research setting and a brief overview of pain management in non-mammalian species, with additional information on analgesic use in larger mammals.
• Using analgesics in a research environment – problems and pitfalls – A review of some of the reasons for the low level of use of analgesics in research animals and how some of these barriers to effective pain relief can be overcome.
• Post-operative care – An e-learning module outlining methods of reducing, avoiding, or alleviating pain and distress by improving perioperative care, providing high standards of animal care, and by refining research procedures.
• Practical exercises in avoiding and minimising pain and distress – An interactive session to enable participants to apply all the information given during the workshop to “Refine” some examples of research techniques. This will be a longer session to allow for a more extensive final Q and A session.