Pain threshold

From Anna Di Cosmo,  University of Naples Your feature on whether invertebrates feel pain  (22 February, p 38) captured my attention, as my research has focused on cephalopods. Our knowledge of the neural pathways that underlie behaviour has allowed us to search for the site  of pain in these animals, but it  is still unclear. Recent changes in European animal welfare legislation now class cephalopods as sentient beings, and animals used for experimental purposes need to  be suitably anaesthetised beforehand. For the most part, previous attempts have not produced true anaesthesia in the cephalopods. Several workers have used muscle relaxants or simple hypothermia under the name “anaesthesia”. This approach is no longer adequate. We urgently need to clarify anaesthetic procedures for cephalopods, and our laboratory was chosen by the Italian scientific ethics committee for animal experimentation (CESA)  to develop these for the benefit of researchers working on cephalopods around the world. Our protocol for anaesthetising Octopus vulgaris using inhaled anaesthetic is now under review for publication. Naples, Italy From Bob Muirhead Research into whether invertebrates feel pain is worthwhile, but misses the bigger point. They are living creatures that should be handled with respect and sympathy, even if it turns out that they don’t feel pain. Port Melbourne, Australia