Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Life science researchers in Canada use as many fish as either rats or mice in their experiments. The Canadian Council for Animal Care (CCAC) Guidelines for use of fish in research do not contain any specific recommendations regarding the use of analgesics (""pain killers"") because we do not have sufficient information to make the appropriate recommendations. The purpose of the research in my laboratory is to test some fundamental assumptions regarding analgesics and analgesia in fish. We propose to develop tests that can be used to produce dose-response curves (that is, how much drug is required to get an effect) for morphine and other analgesics. We also propose to measure how long these drugs are effective as ""pain killers"". The question of whether or not fish can ""feel pain"" is a very difficult one. In our experiments, we simply look for a response to a stimulus that would be considered painful to humans and to other mammals. The stimulus we use is either a small electrical shock or an injection of a very small drop of acid (we use acetic acid, which is the major constituent of vinegar). These stimuli are the same as those that are to study analgesics in mammals. In addition, we test drugs that normally block the effect of morphine in mammals (naloxone and naltrexone) to see if they will block the effect of morphine in fish -- this will provide further evidence that the analgesics are effective.