Abstract
Fish are a useful animal model for research, but our improvement in some aspects of their welfare has not kept pace with their increased popularity for this use. For example, researchers rarely use analgesics. We evaluated the side effects of lidocaine, a local anesthetic widely used in human and veterinary medicine. We infiltrated lidocaine on each side of the dorsal fin (total 20 mg/kg) of young rainbow trout (15 fish per group) compared with infiltration with an equal volume of saline. We monitored behaviour of individual trout during the 4-hour trial. Food was presented 5 times during the trial (30 min, 1 h, 2 h, 3 h, 4 h after infiltration) and we analyzed behaviour for 1 minute before and after food presentation. Behaviour of Saline-Infiltrated trout compared with trout that received no infiltration showed that infiltration in and of itself had no statistically significant effects on trout behaviour. However, there were many statistically significant effects of Lidocaine-Infiltrated trout compared with Saline-Infiltrated trout; none of the side-effects were adverse.
Highlights
Fish are increasingly popular animal models in research
Before recommending that drugs be used in any animal, it is important to have an informed idea of their potential side effects
The goals of the present experiments were first, to estimate side effects of the infiltration procedure in and of itself, and second, to estimate the behavioural effects of lidocaine infiltration when used as a local anesthetic compared with saline infiltration in trout
Summary
Fish are increasingly popular animal models in research. According to the Canadian Council for Animal Care (CCAC) latest animal data report, fish are the largest group of all animals used in research in Canada[1], with mice being the second. Animal welfare regulations and guidelines have been created to ensure the wellbeing of fish used in research[8,9], yet the use of analgesics in fish is limited by the lack of pharmacological information on the efficacy and side-effects of analgesic drugs on target fish species, as well as the ongoing debate as to whether or not fish “feel pain”[10]. This debate is not, directly linked to fish welfare as answering the pain question will not change our ability to improve fish wellbeing by treating the nocifensive responses that occur.
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