Reported analgesic administration to rabbits undergoing experimental surgical procedures

128 papers from 51 peer-reviewed journals were selected for inclusion in this review. Reporting administration of systemic analgesia to rabbits in peer-reviewed scientific papers increased significantly from 16% to 50% between 1995-1997 and 2005-2007 (P < 0.001). Papers that reported ethical approval were more likely than papers that did not specify approval to report systemic analgesic administration (P < 0.001). When systemic analgesics were administered, buprenorphine was the most frequently used agent and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were used less frequently than opioids in both time periods.Although this review provides evidence that systemic analgesic administration to rabbits undergoing surgical procedures is increasing, rabbits do not always receive analgesia when they undergo experimental surgery. Other practices in rabbit perioperative care that could be improved, highlighted by this survey include: 1) changing the timing of analgesic administration by giving systemic analgesics pre- or perioperatively rather than only postoperatively, 2) using multimodal analgesia when pain is likely to be moderate to severe and 3) increasing the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and use of other techniques such as epidural analgesia particularly for orthopaedic procedures.The 3Rs principle of replacement, reduction and refinement has become widely accepted, and is incorporated into the legislation governing the use of animals in several EU member states and throughout the world. This study was undertaken to gain an indication as to how widely one clear refinement, administration of analgesics to prevent pain in animals undergoing surgery, had been implemented in rabbits.When used in biomedical research, rabbits are most frequently used in toxicity studies [1], for antibody production [2] and as surgical models, particularly in the field of orthopaedics [3]. Amongst the countries that annually report the number of animals used in scientific procedures