Severity Assessment Survey – Announcement

The inclusion of live cephalopods, from hatchlings to adults, in Directive 2010/63/EU covering the “protection of animals used in for scientific purposes” legislation has required the EU cephalopod community to become familiar with various requirements of the Directive.

After the work related with the development of Guidelines for the Care and Welfare of Cephalopods (expected to be published as special issue of Laboratory Animals) including ethical and project application requirements, researchers are now beginning to apply for authorisation from the National Competent Authorities to undertake research.

Emphasis of the cephalopod community now needs to shift towards some of the more detailed requirements of the project application and authorisation process. One area that has been a topic of discussion is how to assess and assign the “prospective severity classification” to a procedure (Article 15, Article 38, Annexe VIII). Insights into this process will be needed both by those planning studies and those evaluating projects. Such assessments have been undertaken for projects involving vertebrates for >25years in some EU states, and there is a well-developed literature for many laboratory animal species.

For cephalopods, developing a similar knowledge base to inform assessments will require a focused collaborative effort by the cephalopod research community with input from those familiar with the process in vertebrates. To this aim, the COST Action FA1310 is going to ask all members of CephsInAction to participate in the  [tippy title=”PAS-C Survey” header=”on” width=”100%” height=”200″] CephsInAction prospective severity assessment survey comprises hypothetical mini-scenarios each giving a brief description of a procedure which you will be asked to assess regarding: a) whether it exceeds the threshold for regulation, and b) if it does what you judge the severity level to be. Each scenario and the survey will include detailed notes with definitions of technical terms and guidance to help to identify any possible issue. Statistical analysis of responses will be used to identify areas of consensus and area of disagreement. All responses will be treated confidentially and at no stage the contributor will be identified by name; we will ask you to complete a Personal Profile Form so responses from various groups can be compared.
CephsInAction hopes that you will take the time to participate as to obtain really meaningful findings we need everyone to participate. The data generated will not only assist you in completing project applications, but will also be of use in discussions with review panels and regulators. In addition, it will also help FA1301 COST Axrion to identify areas where we may need to provide resources to clarify issues (e.g. assessing “suffering” of a newly hatched octopus paralarva). Remember that prospective assessment of severity in a project is a requirement not an option![/tippy]

You are urged to participate as CephsInAction is only able to achieve its objectives by active participation of its members and contributors in the various Working Groups.

Data will be presented at the FA1301 Annual Scientific Meeting next November in Lisbon

CephsInAction Prospective Assessment of Severity Survey is a milestone of WG4 and is coordinated by the FA1301 PAS subgroup.