The 3Rs, Replacement, Reduction and Refinement, is a framework to ensure the ethical and justified use of animals in research. The implementation of refinements is required to alleviate and minimise the pain and suffering of animals in research. Public acceptability of animal use in research is contingent on satisfying ethical and legal obligations to provide pain relief along with humane endpoints. To fulfil this obligation, staff, researchers, veterinarians, and technicians must rapidly, accurately, efficiently and consistently identify, assess and act on signs of pain. This ability is paramount to uphold animal welfare, prevent undue suffering and mitigate possible negative impacts on research. Identification of pain may be based on indicators such as physiological, behavioural, or physical ones. Each has been used to develop different pain scoring systems with potential benefits and limitations in identifying and assessing pain. Grimace scores are a promising adjunctive behavioural technique in some mammalian species to identify and assess pain in research animals. The use of this method can be beneficial to animal welfare and research outcomes by identifying animals that may require alleviation of pain or humane intervention. This paper highlights the benefits, caveats, and potential applications of grimace scales.

The monitoring and assessment of animals is important for their health and welfare. The appropriate selection of multiple, validated, and feasible welfare assessment indicators is required to effectively identify compromises or improvements to animal welfare. Animal welfare indicators can be animal or resource based. Indicators can be collated to form assessment tools (e.g., grimace scales) or animal welfare assessment models (e.g., 5 Domains) and frameworks (e.g., 5 Freedoms). The literature contains a wide variety of indicators, with both types needed for effective animal welfare assessment; however, there is yet to be an ideal constellation of indicators for animal-based welfare assessment in small mammals such as guinea pigs (Cavia Porcellus), mice (Mus musculus), rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), and rats (Rattus norvegicus). A systematic review of grey and peer-reviewed literature was performed to determine the types of animal-based welfare indicators available to identify and assess animal health and welfare in these small mammals maintained across a wide variety of conditions. The available indicators were categorised and scored against a selection of criteria, including potential ease of use and costs. This review and analysis aim to provide the basis for further research into animal welfare indicators for these species. Future applications of this work may include improvements to animal welfare assessments or schemes, guiding better management, and implementing future strategies to enable better animal welfare.

As the human population continues to rise, so does the consumption of animal proteins and products. To meet this demand, animal agriculture has intensified. Simultaneously, there are increased public concerns related to improving calf and cattle welfare to ensure ethical and sustainable livestock production. To meet these expectations, it is essential to maintain high standards of cattle (Bos taurus and Bos indicus) welfare. The use of animal-based welfare indicators is critical when assessing and developing assessments for animal welfare. A review of calf and cattle animal-based individual and herd health indicators in the scientific and grey literature was conducted. Indicators were initially grouped into the categories of behavioral, physiological, or physical indicators and further analyzed to determine potential affective states, ease of training, cost, special equipment, time, and current use as herd health indicators. The indicators identified in this review have the potential to inform future research priorities, improve animal welfare assessment, and support uplift in animal welfare in cattle production and research to better meet societal expectations of animal care and use.

During their lifetime, sheep undergo many painful husbandry and disease processes. Procedures undertaken on the farm, such as tail docking, castration, and mulesing, all cause considerable pain. In addition, sheep may experience painful diseases and injuries that require treatment by veterinary practitioners, and in biomedical research, sheep may undergo painful experimental procedures or conditions. It is important due to ethics, animal welfare, social licence, and, at times, legal requirements for farmers, veterinary practitioners, and researchers to provide pain relief for animals in their care. While there is a heightened awareness of and a greater interest in animal welfare, there remain few licensed and known analgesia options for sheep within Australia. A literature review was undertaken to identify currently known and potential future options for analgesic agents in sheep in farm and biomedical settings. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, opioids, local anaesthetics, α₂ adrenoreceptor agonists, and NMDA receptor antagonists are some of the more common classes of analgesic drugs referred to in the literature, but few drugs are registered for use in sheep, with even fewer proven to be effective. Only six analgesic product formulations, namely, lignocaine (e.g., Numocaine^®), Tri-Solfen^®, ketamine, xylazine, and meloxicam (oral transmucosal and injectable formulations), are currently registered in Australia and known to be efficacious in some types of painful conditions in sheep. The gap in knowledge and availability of analgesia in sheep can pose risks to animal welfare, social licence, and research outcomes. This article presents a summary of analgesic agents that have been used in sheep on farms and in clinical veterinary and biomedical research settings along with details on whether their efficacy was assessed, doses, routes of administration, indication for use, and pain assessment techniques (if any) used. The outcome of this research highlights the challenges, gaps, and opportunities for better analgesia options in sheep.

Guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) have been used in research since the 19th century to collect data due to their physiological similarities to humans. Today, animals perform a vital role in experiments and concerns for laboratory animal welfare are enshrined in the 3R framework of reduction, refinement and replacement. This case study explores a refinement in humane euthanasia of guinea pigs via the use of an irreversible penetrating spring-loaded captive bolt (CB). Penetrating spring-loaded CB stunning for euthanasia (CBE) was performed on 12 guinea pigs with the parameters for humane slaughter of production animals in order to assess the suitability of this method of euthanasia in contrast to blunt force trauma (BFT). All 12 of the guinea pigs were rendered immediately unconscious with excellent experimental tissue quality collection, high repeatability of results and operator (n = 8) preference over BFT. Overall, CBE in guinea pigs appears to be a feasible refinement for animal welfare, human preference and improved tissue quality for experimental collection in settings where uncontaminated tissues are required.

Fat-tailed dunnarts (Sminthopsis crassicaudata) are an emerging model species for developmental, reproductive, and conservation biology research. Understanding their husbandry and enrichment needs is integral to ensuring best welfare in captive-bred populations. This was made evident following the sudden deaths of three dunnarts from a population housed at a university research facility between 2018 and 2022. Necropsy results revealed significant trichobezoars causing gastrointestinal obstruction. Following these findings, adjustments were made to the dunnart enclosures with the addition of autoclaved tree bark to capture loose fur as well as the inclusion of paraffin oil in the diet for the purpose of gastrointestinal lubrication. Since these husbandry interventions, no further deaths attributed to trichobezoars have been reported. Here, we present these data and outline new best practice methods for captive dunnart husbandry.