Codes of Practise: Motivation by restriction?

In 2015, around 40,000 animal experiments were carried out in the Netherlands for the benefit of research into the brain and the nervous system. Part of this neurocognitive research focuses on gaining insights into the activity of functioning brains, for example, to better understand neurological processes and disorders, and to develop new treatments. To motivate the animals in this research to repeatedly perform certain tasks within a certain time interval, their access to water or food can be restricted. Food or water is then given as a reward after the animal has correctly performed a behavioural task or activity.

Because this research method raised both public and political concerns, the then State Secretary for Economic Affairs asked the NCad in 2016 to provide advice on this matter. The State Secretary asked us to determine whether animal welfare could be improved when using this method, or whether there might be scope for alternative methods. We were also asked to establish best practices for this research method for the Netherlands and promote these at a European level.

In February 2018, we published an advisory report entitled 'Motivation by restriction?'. The advisory report includes two Codes of Practice (CoPs): CoP for non-human primates and the CoP for Rodents. The report also contains a ‘framework’ called Framework for best practices, which is an overarching document that can be applied to all animal species and can be used as a guideline for research in which the motivation of animals is required for the execution of a behavioural task. For instance, the framework outlines appropriate training methods for animals.