Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a painful, chronic
disorder and there is currently an unmet need for effective
therapies that will benefit a wide range of patients. The
research and development process for therapies and treatments
currently involves in vivo studies, which have the
potential to cause discomfort, pain or distress. This Working
Group report focuses on identifying causes of sufferingwithin
commonly used mouse and rat ‘models’ of RA, describing
practical refinements to help reduce suffering and improve
welfare without compromising the scientific objectives. The
report also discusses other, relevant topics including identifying
and minimising sources of variation within in vivo RA
studies, the potential to provide pain relief including analgesia,
welfare assessment, humane endpoints, reporting
standards and the potential to replace animals in RA research