Pain relief for food animals: creating and testing better ways to measure analgesics
Official title: Development and validation of pain models in food animals
Funded at Kansas State University · NIH-11419445 · Data updated 2026-11-12
Researchers will develop and validate animal pain models in livestock to help bring safe and effective pain-relief drugs to market for pigs, goats, and calves.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Kansas State University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Manhattan, United States) |
| Project start | September 15, 2024 |
| Project end | August 31, 2029 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $913,626 |
| NIH project number | 5U18FD008474-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11419445 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Not applicable to human patients; outcomes will inform veterinary medicine and livestock welfare practices.
✕Less likely to help
There are no direct patient participants; benefits would be realized through improvements in animal welfare and industry practices.
What this research studies
This project focuses on creating reliable pain models in food animals to show how analgesics work, with the goal of speeding up approval of safe pain medicines. It will explore how behavioral cues and biological biomarkers together reflect pain levels and how animal drug levels relate to pain relief. The work aims to improve on-farm animal welfare by enabling safer, approved analgesics for common painful procedures and illnesses. By refining pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic analyses, the study seeks to optimize dosing regimens while meeting regulatory standards. The ultimate aim is to support better pain management in livestock while maintaining food safety and consumer trust.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could lead to approved analgesics for livestock and better pain management on farms, improving animal welfare and industry practices.
How similar studies have gone: Previous work suggests that combining behavioral measures with biomarkers improves pain assessment, but this specific approach in food animals is still being tested.
Where this research is happening
-
Kansas State University
Manhattan, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Apley, Michael Douglas — Kansas State University
- Study coordinator: Apley, Michael Douglas
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.