Fish feel pain !!!!!!!!

[Elton]

TROUT TRAUMA PUTS ANGLERS ON THE HOOK?

 

Can fish feel pain? This is a question that has troubled anglers and animal rights activists alike in recent years. Research by a team of scientists from the Roslin Institute and the University of Edinburgh to be published in a forthcoming Proceedings B, a learned journal published by the Royal Society, appears to provide the answer: "yes". This is the first conclusive evidence indicating pain perception in fish. It has previously been established that birds and mammals are capable of experiencing pain.

 

This study was undertaken on rainbow trout and demonstrates that not only are there nervous system receptors in the head of the fish that respond to damaging stimuli, but that application of short-acting noxious substances produce profound behavioural and physiological changes in the fish over a prolonged period comparable to those observed in higher mammals. This indicates, the researchers believe, that fish can perceive pain.

 

Nervous reaction

 

The presence of nociceptors - receptors that respond preferentially to tissue damaging stimuli - in the rainbow trout was determined using electrophysiological recordings. Neural activity was recorded in prepared, anaesthetised fish whilst mechanical, thermal and chemical stimuli were applied to the head. "We found 58 receptors located on the face and head of the rainbow trout that responded to at least one of the stimuli," says Dr Lynne Sneddon who led the research at the Roslin Institute and is now working at University of Liverpool. "22 of these could be classified as nociceptors in that they responded to mechanical pressure and were stimulated when heated above 40ºC. Of these, 18 receptors also responded to chemical stimulation and can be defined as polymodal nociceptors."

 

The polymodal nociceptors found in the trout are the first to be found in fish and have similar properties to those found in amphibians, birds and mammals including humans. "Receptor diameter, thermal thresholds and mechanical responses were found to be similar to those measured in higher vertebrate groups," explains Dr. Sneddon. "However mechanical thresholds were lower than those found in, for example, human skin. This may be due to the more easily damaged nature of fish skin. The threshold for mechanical stimulation appears to be similar to that for mammalian eye nociceptors."

 

Nociception not enough

 

However the demonstration of nociception, the detection of noxious, tissue damaging stimuli, in any animal is not enough to prove pain perception. Nociception may sometimes be accompanied by a reflex reaction such as withdrawal. To demonstrate pain perception it is necessary to show that the animal?s behaviour is adversely affected by a potentially painful experience and these behavioural changes are not simple reflex responses. Therefore the behavioural response to stimuli in fish was also studied.

 

Bee venom or acetic acid was injected in the lips of some trout, whilst other fish were injected with saline solution or merely handled to form control groups. All fish had previously been conditioned to feed at a feeding ring in their tank where they were collected for handling and/or injection.

 

"Anomalous behaviours were exhibited by trout subjected to bee venom and acetic acid," says Dr. Sneddon. "Fish demonstrated 'rocking' motion, strikingly similar to the kind of motion seen in stressed higher vertebrates like mammals, and the trout injected with acetic acid were also observed to rub their lips onto the gravel in their tank and on the tank walls. These do not appear to be reflex responses."

 

The acid and bee venom injected fish also took almost three times longer to resume feeding activity compared to the saline and handling control groups. The time to resume feeding did not decrease in experiments with fish conditioned to feed on ?softer? food.

 

Hook line and sinker

 

"Our research demonstrates nociception and suggests that noxious stimulation in the rainbow trout has adverse behavioural and physiological effects. This fulfils the criteria for animal pain," concludes Dr. Sneddon. "Previous work on fish has looked at the elasmobranch family, such as stingrays, and primitive vertebrates like the lamprey. These studies did not conclusively show the presence of nociceptors. We believe that our study is the first work with fish of the teleost family and the results may represent an evolutionary divergence between the teleost and elasmobranch lineages."

 

The full title of this paper is:

 

Do fish have nociceptors: evidence for the evolution of a vertebrate sensory system by Dr. Lynne U. Sneddon, Dr. Victoria A. Braithwaite and Dr. Michael J. Gentle.

 

The full paper will be published via the FirstCite website on Wednesday 30 April 2003 and will be part of PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY: Biological Sciences - Vol. 270, No. 1520 to be published in June this year.

[Elton]

Bruno Broughton:

 

 

If anyone else gets the call, please email me and I will send you the same.

Hi Bruno,

 

I would like a copy, if possible, to add to this thread.

 

Tight lines,

 

Elton

[Elton]

National Angling Alliance

Press Statement

 

A team of scientists from the Roslin Institute and the University of Edinburgh are claiming that as a consequence of their recent research, they have demonstrated that fish can perceive pain. This follows work performed on live rainbow trout in which the fish were injected with poisons, after which their physiology and behaviour were monitored.

 

Their surprising conclusions - about to be published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society - were based on the discovery around the fishes’ mouths of so-called nociceptors, special sensory cells that can detect noxious stimuli. In subsequent experiments, injections into the lips with bee venom and acetic acid caused the fish to cease feeding for three hours, and their respiratory rate was also elevated for this period.

 

That these findings demonstrate that fish can feel pain is in direct contrast to the recent work of Professor James D Rose of the University of Wyoming in the USA, who stated in the Reviews of Fisheries Science that fish do not possess the necessary and specific region of the brain – the neocortex – to enable them to feel pain or, indeed, fear.

 

Dr Bruno Broughton, a well-known fish biologist and scientific advisor to the National Angling Alliance (NAA), is unconvinced by claims that fish can feel pain.

 

“I doubt that it will come as much of a shock to anglers to learn that fish have an elaborate system of sensory cells around their mouths. Nor is it a surprise that, when their lips are injected with poisons, fish respond and behave abnormally”.

 

Dr Broughton continued:

 

“However, it is an entirely different matter to draw conclusions about the ability of fish to feel pain, a psychological experience for which they – literally - do not have the brains.”

 

The National Angling Alliance (NAA) believes that that the known evidence points towards the fact that fish are not capable of feeling pain as it is perceived within mammals. Quite apart from scientific arguments, common sense dictates that a fish with a hook set into its mouth would not fight against such pain, nor would it feed on diets which included spiny-finned fish, molluscs and the like.

 

Speaking on behalf of the NAA, Paul Knight – also the Director of the Salmon & Trout Association – commented:

 

“We do not accept that fish feel pain, but the wider issue of fish welfare is a subject that good anglers take seriously. That is why the sport is governed by national legislation, fisheries byelaws, fishery rules and codes of conduct, all designed to assure the well-being of the fish we catch.”

[Elton]

The original press release was sent by somebody with an email address relating to this site:

 

http://www.absw.org.uk/

 

In my own personal opinion, I would have expected something a little more academic than "TROUT TRAUMA PUTS ANGLERS ON THE HOOK?" and "Hook line and sinker" as paragraph headings.

 

Just smacks of a (not even) hidden agenda to me...

[Elton]

For anyone interested, I've added both press statements here:

 

http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/news/articles/217.html

[Chris Plumb]

Elton:

Bee venom or acetic acid was injected in the lips of some trout, whilst other fish were injected with saline solution or merely handled to form control groups. All fish had previously been conditioned to feed at a feeding ring in their tank where they were collected for handling and/or injection.

 

"Anomalous behaviours were exhibited by trout subjected to bee venom and acetic acid," says Dr. Sneddon. "Fish demonstrated 'rocking' motion, strikingly similar to the kind of motion seen in stressed higher vertebrates like mammals, and the trout injected with acetic acid were also observed to rub their lips onto the gravel in their tank and on the tank walls. These do not appear to be reflex responses."

 

The acid and bee venom injected fish also took almost three times longer to resume feeding activity compared to the saline and handling control groups. The time to resume feeding did not decrease in experiments with fish conditioned to feed on ?softer? food.

OK - so I'll promise not to inject my fish with Bee VENOM and Acetic ACID!!! Actually just think about this for a minute. They INJECTED fish with saline or handled - and this was the CONTROL group which (by inference) didn't show any anamolous behavior. So what's the difference between a hook (which doesn't inject ANYTHING) and a needle!!!!). To me it rather proves the OPPOSITE to what they claim. IE providing we steer clear of venom/acid tipped hooks then fish show no signs of distress. Perhaps because the reactions observed were to a CHEMICAL stimuli not a MECHANICAL one...???

 

 

Chris

[Peter Waller]

Eastern Angler, you spoke very well for us, thank you!

 

A lady has just suggested that it alright to buy fish from a fishmongers but not alright to catch fish to eat!!

[P@UL]

I just saw Charles Jardine on breakfast TV and to me it seemed he was ready to discuss terms of surrender. He really seems to have aged a lot recently, poor bloke. He really looked in a bad way.

[robisme]

Hi, OK so not a suprise that someone came-up with a report to say fish do feel pain, I guess just to combat the earlier one which said "they don't feel pain", typical of the press to jump on the latest report, when little was said in the media about the first one which said they don't feel pain. To me this latest report was expected.

 

Any being of any type would react to something nasty put in their mouths, but that does not mean pain to me, nothing prooved really by this report to me.

btw, I emailed GMTV, asking them to highlight the earlier report of "No pain", if they dare to proove they take no side in this argument, which seems highly unlikely for them to do.

cya

Rob

[Alan Taylor]

Chris Plumb:

Originally posted by Elton:

[qb]

Bee venom or acetic acid was injected in the lips of some trout,

IE providing we steer clear of venom/acid tipped hooks then fish show no signs of distress. Perhaps because the reactions observed were to a CHEMICAL stimuli not a MECHANICAL one...???

 

 

Chris

Once again you have beaten me to it Chris

 

Alan(nl)