Evidence-based comparative severity assessment in young and adult mice

In animal-based research, welfare assessments are essential for ethical and legal reasons. Accurate assessment of suffering in laboratory animals is often complicated by the multidimensional character of distress and pain and the associated affective states. The present study aimed to design and validate multidimensional composite measure schemes comprising behavioral and biochemical parameters based on a bioinformatics approach. Published data sets from induced and genetic mouse models of neurological and psychiatric disorders were subjected to a bioinformatics workflow for cross-model analyses. An online tool (R package) is provided, allowing the application of the bioinformatics approach to severity assessment data sets regardless of the parameters or models used. This tool is available at: https://github.com/mytalbot/cms.The tool can also be used to validate refinement measures.  

Raw data sets:

Data-set_Fig2a corresponding to Figure 2a

Data-set_Fig2b corresponding to Figure 2b

Data-set_Fig2c corresponding to Figure 2c

Data-set_Fig2d corresponding to Figure 2d

Data-set_Fig2e corresponding to Figure 2e

Data-set_Fig2f corresponding to Figure 2f

Data-set_Fig2g corresponding to Figure 2g

Data-set_Fig3a corresponding to Figure 3a

Data-set_Fig3b corresponding to Figure 3b

Data-set_Fig3c corresponding to Figure 3c

Data-set_Fig3d corresponding to Figure 3d

Data-set_Fig4a corresponding to Figure 4a

Data-set_Fig4b corresponding to Figure 4b

Data-set_Fig4c corresponding to Figure 4c

Data-set_FigS1 corresponding to Supplementary Figure S1

Data-set_FigS2 corresponding to Supplementary Figure S2

Data-set_FigS3 corresponding to Supplementary Figure S3

Data-set_FigS4 corresponding to Supplementary Figure S4

Data-set_FigS5 corresponding to Supplementary Figure S5

Data-set_FigS6 corresponding to Supplementary Figure S6

Data-set_FigS7 corresponding to Supplementary Figure S7

Data-set_FigS8 corresponding to Supplementary Figure S8

Data-set_FigS9 corresponding to Supplementary Figure S9