Choice-based severity scale (CSS): assessing the relative severity of procedures from a laboratory animal's perspective.

ABSTRACT: One primary goal of laboratory animal welfare science is to provide a comprehensive severity assessment of the experimental and husbandry procedures or conditions these animals experience. The severity, or degree of suffering, of these conditions experienced by animals are typically scored based on anthropocentric assumptions. We propose to (a) assess an animal's subjective experience of condition severity, and (b) not only rank but scale different conditions in relation to one another using choice-based preference testing. The Choice-based Severity Scale (CSS) utilizes animals' relative preferences for different conditions, which are compared by how much reward is needed to outweigh the perceived severity of a given condition. Thus, this animal-centric approach provides a common scale for

SUBMITTER: Cassidy L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11188928 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature