Exploring the attitudes of Bavarian farmers towards pain in cattle and how they differ from the attitudes of bovine veterinarians

Abstract

Background: Assessment of pain in cattle depends on the observer's experience and evaluation. Only a few studies compare veterinarians' and farmers' attitudes towards pain in cattle. Methods: A questionnaire was sent to 1097 cattle practitioners and 3750 farmers. Return rate was 26.2% for veterinarians and 15.4% for farmers, respectively. Respondents were asked to score the painfulness of procedures and diseases in cattle on a numerical rating scale from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst pain imaginable), to give their opinion about the use of analgesics during and after procedures, and to agree or disagree with given statements. Results: There were no significant differences between pain scores awarded by veterinarians and farmers, but significant differences in parameters both groups relied on for pain assessment. Farmers were less willing than veterinarians to use analgesia during and after procedures. There was no significant difference in the amount of money veterinarians thought farmers would spent on analgesia and farmers' actual statements. Conclusion:The results of this study indicate that farmers and veterinarians assess pain severity similarly, but recognise pain differently and disagree in their opinion regarding the use of analgesics. The communication between both groups needs to be improved to ensure proper pain management.

A nationwide survey on producer and veterinarian perceptions of the painfulness of procedures and disease states in dairy and beef cattle

“…In a survey study of Canadian veterinarians, Hewson et al, (18) expressed the provision of analgesia as a percentage of calves receiving analgesia and showed that 6.9% and 18.7% of beef and dairy calves six months of age or less received analgesia and 19.9% and 33.2% of beef and dairy calves greater than six months of age received analgesia for castration. Tshoner et al, (89) of both local and systemic analgesia by veterinarians as compared with producers for surgical castration in calves but also reported that surgical castration was rated as one of the most painful procedures out of the those included in the survey; although it is challenging to compare across studies due to differences in methodology, in the current study, the pain associated with surgical castration was not rated as high. Despite substantial evidence that surgical castration causes pain in cattle (e.g., 11-13, 54, 57, 61-63) and some regulatory guidance existing in countries outside of the United States, the provision of pain mitigation for surgical castration, although increasing has not reached full adoption as a consistently implemented best management practice.…”

Use of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs and Attitudes to Pain in Pasture-Based Dairy Cows: A Comparative Study of Farmers and Veterinarians

“…There is also limited comparative work between the attitudes to pain between both veterinarians and farmers. Tschoner et al ( 12 ) reported that there was no significant differences between pain scores of Bavarian veterinarians and farmers. In contrast, Thomsen et al ( 13 ) reported that Danish dairy farmers gave higher pain scores compared to veterinarians.…”

Effect of the observer’s gender bias monitoring acute pain using a validated behavior scale in castrated piglets

“…In surveys of veterinarians' attitudes, women assigned higher pain levels than men for different surgical procedures in dogs and cats [52][53][54] . For large animals, women farms and veterinarians had different perceptions of pain in bovines [55][56][57][58] , equines 59,60 , and swine 61 due to painful procedures and diseases in comparison with men. Additionally, women have scored higher pain than men when using a visual analogue scale assessing adults and children painful human patients [47][48][49][50][51] .…”

“…More speci cally, in questionnaires about small animal veterinary attitudes, women assigned higher pain levels for different surgical procedures than men [52][53][54] . Additionally, women farms and veterinarians had different perceptions of pain than men when asked about painful procedures and diseases in bovines [55][56][57][58] , equines 59,60 , and swine 61 . Speci cally for the pain-altered behavior scales, the observers' gender impacted grimace scales for macaques 13 , sows 28 , and donkeys 23 , as well as wholebody behavioral pain scales in cats 34,62 and dogs 62 .…”