title: Ensuring animal welfare while meeting scientific aims using a murine pneumonia model of septic shock.
abstract: With animal models, death as an intentional end point is ethically unacceptable. However, in the study of septic shock, death is still considered the only relevant end point. We defined eight humane end points into four stages of severity (from healthy to moribund) and used to design a clinically relevant scoring tool, termed "the mouse clinical assessment score for sepsis" (M-CASS). The M-CASS was used to enable a consistent approach to the assessment of disease severity. This allowed an ethical and objective assessment of disease after which euthanasia was performed, instead of worsening suffering. The M-CASS displayed a high internal consistency (Cronbach α = 0.97) with a high level of agreement and an intraclass correlation coefficient equal to 0.91. The plasma levels of cytokines and markers of oxidative stress were all associated with the M-CASS score (Kruskal-Wallis test, P < 0.05). The M-CASS allows tracking of disease progression and animal welfare requirements.
authors.affiliation: Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, The Alfred Hospital, Victoria, Australia. olivier.huet@bakeridi.edu.au
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Huet
authors.forename: Debbie
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ramsey
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Miljavec
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jenney
authors.forename: Cecile
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Aubron
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aprico
authors.forename: Nada
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Stefanovic
authors.forename: Beverley
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Balkau
authors.forename: Geoff A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Head
authors.forename: Judy B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: de Haan
authors.forename: Jaye P F
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Chin-Dusting
mesh_terms: D000827:Animal Welfare / Q000592:standards*; D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D015169:Colony Count, Microbial; D016207:Cytokines / Q000097:blood; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D007710:Klebsiella Infections / Q000150:complications; D007711:Klebsiella pneumoniae / Q000254:growth & development; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D018410:Pneumonia, Bacterial / Q000150:complications; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012772:Shock, Septic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D016207:Cytokines