Large animal protocols submitted to
Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUCs) are required to include
searches for alternatives and address the “3Rs":
1. Refinement:
use methodology and protocols that reduce pain and distress
2. Replacement:
substitute animals with non-animal models or lower species
3. Reduction:
minimize the number of animals
Locating
descriptions of methodology for the refinement concept is challenging since
PubMed (and most other databases) do not search full-text.
The objectives of
this study were to determine how well the title, abstract, and
MeSH terms cover the content of the methods section in in-vivo animal
research articles, particularly with respect to procedures, drugs, and
animal species used, and to describe how this might impact a search.
The title/abstract, MeSH
terms, and methods section of each article were reviewed and details
such as: animal species, number of animals, description of housing,
description of experimental procedures used, and analgesia/anesthesia
were extracted.
Articles were screened from April 2017 - September 2017.
Details for the methodology used and description of uploaded files are provided in the README.txt file.