Effects of Topical Anaesthetic and Buccal Meloxicam Treatments on Concurrent Castration and Dehorning of Beef Calves

Abstract

Simple SummaryThe pain caused by surgical procedures performed routinely for managing livestock husbandry is recognised as a significant animal welfare issue for food security. In recent years, there has been progress encouraging the uptake of pain relief in extensively managed livestock operations, with research and development offering options for the practical delivery of anaesthetics and analgesics during these procedures. In Australia, topical anaesthetic and buccal meloxicam treatments are now commercially available for use during routine surgical husbandry procedures of lambs and calves. A study to assess the effect of these treatments on weight gain and behavioural variables following concurrent surgical castration and amputation dehorning in beef calves is reported. Results showed that a combination of topical anaesthetic and buccal meloxicam appeared to reduce pain following castration and dehorning, with improved weight gain and increased lying activity in the first few days following the procedures. In addition, some individual behaviours expressed by the calves on the day of treatment suggested pain was relieved by topical anaesthetic and buccal meloxicam, although further clarification of this observation is required. These findings demonstrate that provision of topical anaesthetic and buccal meloxicam to beef calves undergoing surgical castration and amputation dehorning can result in improved animal welfare and production.AbstractThe use of pain relief during castration and dehorning of calves on commercial beef operations can be limited by constraints associated with the delivery of analgesic agents. As topical anaesthetic (TA) and buccal meloxicam (MEL) are now available in Australia, offering practical analgesic treatments for concurrent castration and dehorning of beef calves, a study was conducted to determine their efficacy in providing pain relief when applied separately or in combination. Weaner calves were randomly allocated to; (1) no castration and dehorning/positive control (CONP); (2) castration and dehorning/negative control (CONN); (3) castration and dehorning with buccal meloxicam (BM); (4) castration and dehorning with topical anaesthetic (TA); and (5) castration and dehorning with buccal meloxicam and topical anaesthetic (BMTA). Weight gain, paddock utilisation, lying activity and individual behaviours following treatment were measured. CONP and BMTA calves had significantly greater weight gain than CONN calves (p < 0.001). CONN calves spent less time lying compared to BMTA calves on all days (p < 0.001). All dehorned and castrated calves spent more time walking (p = 0.024) and less time eating (p < 0.001) compared to CONP calves. There was a trend for CONP calves to spend the most time standing and CONN calves to spend the least time standing (p = 0.059). There were also trends for the frequency of head turns to be lowest in CONP and BMTA calves (p = 0.098) and tail flicks to be highest in CONN and BM calves (p = 0.061). The findings of this study suggest that TA and MEL can pot...

Preliminary Investigation to Address Pain and Haemorrhage Following the Spaying of Female Cattle

“…However, proportionately, SM heifers still spent more than double the amount of time with a stiff tail compared to CON heifers and had increased repetitive head and tail movements. This may suggest post-operative treatment with meloxicam alone does not completely alleviate the discomfort or pain caused by spaying, and supports previous data on the pain of castration and NSAID use in cattle whereby peri-operative nociception is not completely abolished [10,14,30]. These adverse behavioural responses were less pronounced in the meloxicam treatment group (SM), which often had similar results to the CON group, indicating that meloxicam is effective at mitigating the pain and discomfort associated with spaying for at least 6 h post-procedure.…”

“…Appropriately managing pain in cattle may reduce the effects of stress responses, immune reactions, and reduced feeding behaviour, all of which affect production parameters, including weight gain [31]. For example, calves undergoing castration and/or dehorning with a local anaesthetic and NSAID have been shown to spend more time eating compared to calves that did not receive any analgesics [13], with improved short-term weight gain [30]. Further research into an effective multimodal pain relief protocol is suggested.…”

Effect of Lignocaine and a Topical Vapocoolant Spray on Pain Response during Surgical Castration of Beef Calves

“…In recent years, advancements to post-operative pain relief for calves undergoing castration have been demonstrated through the development of practically administered analgesic products, such as a topical anaesthetic, Tri-Solfen ® (Bayer Australia Ltd, Pymble, NSW, Australia) and a buccal non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, Ilium ® Buccalgesic OTM (Troy Laboratories Australia Pty Ltd, Glendenning, NSW, Australia). Such products can be quickly and easily administered by producers whilst calves are in a race, crush or cradle [3,4,5,6]. However, practical options to address intra-operative pain associated with surgical castration are lacking.…”

The Welfare of Beef Cattle in the Scientific Literature From 1990 to 2019: A Text Mining Approach

“…The castration of male calves or mature bulls is a common practice in many parts of the world and is carried out to facilitate management and prevent unwanted breeding ( 68 ). Castration can be carried out upon arrival at the feedlot ( 69 ), in some cases together with other painful procedures [e.g., dehorning, branding ( 70 )]. Physiological and behavioural indicators of inflammation and pain can last for days or weeks depending on the method and age of the animal at the time of castration ( 71 , 72 ).…”