Abstract
Reptiles show morpho-physiological differences compared with other taxa (e.g., mammals), such as their pain manifestation that are not obvious to people. Presently, a great part of animal care practitioners lack enough knowledge to evaluate pain behaviors in reptiles, partially because there is not enough research on the subject. The aim of this review is to perform a systematic research about pain identification and assessment through postural and behavioral changes in reptiles. A bibliographic search was made using commands constituted by words related to pain and reptile species connected by boolean operators. The search resulted in 751 articles, although only 43 of them were used based on the eligibility criteria. Information obtained was grouped into three categories. The first were articles on specific nociceptive response trials, in this group two different pain methodologies were observed in all the reptiles groups: Withdrawal time to irritable stimulus (thermal or mechanic) and response to parenteral irritating chemical. The second category included tudies in which postural or behavioral changes associated with pain were mentioned. The third category were review articles. Considering the information published nowadays, we consider that it would be insufficient to evaluate pain in reptiles using one single method. Since most sources mention comparison with normal behaviors, elaborate ethograms of individuals or species (in captivity) during a pain-free period could be useful to identify periods of discomfort. However, more studies are needed to ensure correlation between pain and behaviors.
Published Version
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