In an attempt to make pain assessment more scientific, geneticist Jeffrey Mogil at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and his colleagues developed the "mouse grimace scale," which was published in Nature Methods in May 2010.
The scale relies on the scoring of five "action units"--such as narrowing of the eyes and bulging of the cheeks--between zero (not present) and two (obviously present), with the combined score indicating total pain. The scale rapidly caught on among veterinarians to assess post-operative pain. "I'm surprised how quickly it was adopted as a practical thing to use in real-time for animal care," says Mogil.
Matthew Leach, who researches animal welfare at Newcastle University, UK, and led the work in rabbits, has been working on facial expressions of pain in various animals since the original mouse grimace scale came out. "The only way you can alleviate pain is to be able to identify it, and to understand how much pain an animal is in," he says. "There is a broad interest in grimace scales," he notes, adding that compared with traditional models, "I would argue it's potentially better and faster in many circumstances."
Leach's rabbit grimace scale, published September 7 in PLoS One was prompted by the Swedish government, which wanted a way to assess how painful ear tattooing--a procedure commonly used to identify animals used in agriculture and breeding shows--is for rabbits.
"I think the grimace scales have made a difference," says Hawkins. "I think they've given people a real wake-up call regarding their ability to detect pain in animals."
- Rabbits Show their Pain
The scale relies on the scoring of five "action units"--such as narrowing of the eyes and bulging of the cheeks--between zero (not present) and two (obviously present), with the combined score indicating total pain. The scale rapidly caught on among veterinarians to assess post-operative pain. "I'm surprised how quickly it was adopted as a practical thing to use in real-time for animal care," says Mogil.
Matthew Leach, who researches animal welfare at Newcastle University, UK, and led the work in rabbits, has been working on facial expressions of pain in various animals since the original mouse grimace scale came out. "The only way you can alleviate pain is to be able to identify it, and to understand how much pain an animal is in," he says. "There is a broad interest in grimace scales," he notes, adding that compared with traditional models, "I would argue it's potentially better and faster in many circumstances."
Leach's rabbit grimace scale, published September 7 in PLoS One was prompted by the Swedish government, which wanted a way to assess how painful ear tattooing--a procedure commonly used to identify animals used in agriculture and breeding shows--is for rabbits.
"I think the grimace scales have made a difference," says Hawkins. "I think they've given people a real wake-up call regarding their ability to detect pain in animals."
- Rabbits Show their Pain
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