Acute effects of mulesing and alternative procedures to mulesing on lamb behaviour

Edwards, Lauren; Arnold, Naomi A.; Butler, K. L.; Hemsworth, P.H.

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2011.05.014

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…In both our present and previous studies, the similarity in the biological responses of lambs in the Clip, Tail ring and Control treatments, but the contrasting biological responses between lambs in the Clip and Mules treatments, indicate that this alternative treatment to surgical mulesing results in a short‐term, moderate biological response. Most differences between surgical mulesing and the Clip and Control treatments were apparent on the day of treatment, although differences in gait and gait posture scores were apparent at days 4 and 7.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

“…We have also recently shown that differences in behaviour between Control and Clip lambs are much less severe in the first 2 h after treatment than those observed for Mules lambs. 30 These and our previous results 10 indicate that the biological responses to the Clip treatment are indicative of a moderate short-term stress response.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

“…In particular, on day 1 the Clip lambs exhibited both less standing immobile not interacting with ground, hay or feeder and less standing immobile with the head down and not interacting with ground, hay or feeder, and exhibited both more walking and more interacting with ground, hay or feeder than Mules lambs. We have also recently shown that differences in behaviour between Control and Clip lambs are much less severe in the first 2 h after treatment than those observed for Mules lambs indicate that the biological responses to the Clip treatment are indicative of a moderate short‐term stress response.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Behavioural responses of lambs to plastic clips as an alternative procedure to mulesing

et al. 2012

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 69%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

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Behavioural responses of lambs to plastic clips as an alternative procedure to mulesing

et al. 2012

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“…In the present study, observers described and scored the behavioural expression of all animals that were subject to the painful husbandry procedures, regardless of whether they received analgesic treatment or not (AT or PLACEBO), as more ‘dull’ and ‘uneasy’ compared to the control lambs that were only restrained in the cradle for 60 s. It is undeniable that the mulesing procedure causes pain as a result of severe tissue damage and ensuing inflammatory responses, with the behavioural response to the procedure one of ‘shock’, characterised by reduced activity and the adoption of an abnormal ‘hunched’ posture while standing, with increased sensitivity to stimulation [ 6 , 30 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 ]. Furthermore, the addition of tail docking and/or castration with rubber rings at the time of mulesing in the present study is likely to have also altered the behavioural expression of lambs in a way that was evident to observers, since the combination of these procedures is known to increase the expression of active pain avoidance behaviours in lambs [ 6 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary Findings on a Novel Behavioural Approach for the Assessment of Pain and Analgesia in Lambs Subject to Routine Husbandry Procedures

Grant

Wickham

Anderson

et al. 2020

Animals

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The identification and assessment of pain in sheep under field conditions are important, but, due to their stoic nature, are fraught with many challenges. In Australia, various husbandry procedures that are documented to cause pain are routinely performed at lamb marking, including ear tagging, castration, mulesing, and tail docking. This study evaluated the validity of a novel methodology to assess pain in lambs: qualitative behavioural assessment (QBA) was used to compare the behavioural expression of control lambs (CONTROL) with that of lambs subject to these procedures that received either a saline placebo 15 min before procedures (PLACEBO), or were administered meloxicam 15 min before procedures in addition to the standard analgesic Tri-Solfen at the time of procedures, as per the manufacturer’s recommendations (ANALGESIC TREATMENT; AT). In terms of behavioural expression, it was expected that: CONTROL ≠ PLACEBO, AT = CONTROL, and PLACEBO ≠ AT. Video footage of the 6−8-week-old lambs (n = 10 for each treatment) was captured approximately 1.5 h postprocedure and was presented, in a random order, to 19 observers for assessment using the Free-Choice Profiling (FCP) approach to QBA. There was significant consensus (p < 0.001) among the observers in their assessment of the lambs, with two main dimensions of behavioural expression explaining 69.2% of the variation. As expected, observers perceived differences in the demeanour of lambs in the first dimension, scoring all lambs subject to the routine husbandry procedures as significantly more ‘dull’ and ‘uneasy’ compared to the control lambs (p < 0.05). Contrary to expectations, the results also suggested that analgesic treatment did not provide relief at the time of observation. Further investigations to validate the relationship between behavioural expression scores and pain are necessary, but these results suggest that painful husbandry procedures alter the behavioural expression of lambs and these differences can be captured using QBA methodology.

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“…The reliance on insecticides and the inexorable rise of drug resistance to most classes of insecticide has driven the search for alternative control mechanisms including the use of genetic, biological and immunological technologies (12). The other more recent driver particularly for sheep blowfly control has been animal welfare concerns around the mulesing operation and to a lesser extent tail docking (13,14). Mulesing is the surgical removal of the wool bearing skin on either side of the vulva which regrows as bare skin and is thus much less subject to urine and faecal staining (15).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The immunobiology of myiasis infections – whatever happened to vaccination?

Sandeman

Bowles

Colwell³

2014

Parasite Immunology

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The current state of myiasis vaccine technologies are reviewed mainly in the primary research genera of Lucilia and Hypoderma. The importance of myiasis flies as primary causes of morbidity and mortality in agricultural species and man has not diminished despite the existence of good control strategies. However, the development of vaccines against myiasis infections has been relatively quiescent for more than 10 years despite the rapid development of genomic and proteomic analysis and of skills in data interpretation. The value of vaccine research in an era of chemical primacy is analysed. In fact, recent findings of drug resistance and the impact of animal welfare concerns should mean a renewed interest in alternative controls. The reasons that this has not been true to date are explored and new possibilities discussed.

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Acute effects of mulesing and alternative procedures to mulesing on lamb behaviour

Cited by 8 publications

References 15 publications

Behavioural responses of lambs to plastic clips as an alternative procedure to mulesing

Behavioural responses of lambs to plastic clips as an alternative procedure to mulesing

Preliminary Findings on a Novel Behavioural Approach for the Assessment of Pain and Analgesia in Lambs Subject to Routine Husbandry Procedures

The immunobiology of myiasis infections – whatever happened to vaccination?

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