An official website of the United States government.
Animal welfare assessments are a critical component of an institution’s animal program. A welfare assessment involves examining the animals to ensure good health and well-being as well as monitoring for any signs of pain, distress, or suffering. The Animal Welfare Act requires that daily observations of the animals are made (9 CFR § 2.33 (b)(3)(2022)). To complete a welfare assessment, welfare indicators should be identified and established in protocols for the species that you’re working with, so personnel can adequately assess the animals. Learn more about assessing animal welfare and using species-specific welfare indicators.
Welfare Assessment Training and Resources
CCAC Guidelines: Animal Welfare Assessment
Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC).
CCAC's 2021 guidelines define why we assess welfare, identify welfare indicators, and explain welfare assessment documentation.
Welfare Assessment
National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs).
NC3Rs provides information about identifying welfare indicators, assessing and reporting actual severity, effective record keeping and review, and staff training.
Guide to Welfare Assessment Protocols
U.K. Joint Working Group on Refinement.
This guide discusses defining and implementing protocols for the welfare assessment of laboratory animals.
Literature on Welfare Assessment and Indicators
Below are basic searches for literature on welfare assessments and welfare indicators. If you want to find literature on these topics for a certain species, you can build upon these search strings by including animal search terms. For example, edit the search and include "(mice OR mouse OR mus OR murine)" to find welfare assessments and indicators for mice. To learn more about building search strings, visit AWIC's alternatives literature searching page or if you need help finding information, contact us.
Species-specific Grimace Scales
Grimace scales are scoring systems used to assess pain in animals by evaluating different areas of the face and body posture. Grimace scales are currently available for a number of animals including laboratory animals, farm animals, pets, and wildlife.
Other Web Resources
National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs).
This site provides a comprehensive welfare assessment of macaques including behavioral, physiological, and health indicators.
Zoo Animal Welfare Assessments
Wild Welfare.
Wild Welfare's assessments are "designed to identify welfare concerns within a zoo and their source or origin. The assessment can be used as a monitoring and evaluation tool and we can use it to generate recommendations for improvements."