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

Yu, Audrey; Saag, Dominique Van der; Letchford, P; Windsor, Peter; White, Peter

doi:10.3390/ani10020249

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…In tropical beef production, there is also the challenge of removing unrequired females from the herd in a suitable condition for sale. This requires that the ovarian function of these females is ablated, usually by spaying to prevent pregnancy and enable fattening (62,63). The failure of a chemical spaying approach to be effective in the field and the delayed availability of immunospaying currently under investigation, has led to continuation of the reasonably common practice of surgical cattle spaying.…”

Section: Progress With Surveillance Assessment and New Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Progress With Livestock Welfare in Extensive Production Systems: Lessons From Australia

Windsor

2021

Front. Vet. Sci.

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The extensive livestock production industries are vital to the national economy of Australia. Continuing improvements to extensively-raised livestock welfare is desirable, necessary and in some situations mandatory, if the social license for animal sourced food and fiber production is to continue sustainably. However, meeting increasingly high welfare standards is challenging. The changing climate in this millennium, has seen the occurrence of two of the most severe drought periods on record in Australia, resulting in complex welfare issues arising from unforeseen disease, trade and environmental catastrophes. The onset of the first drought coincided with an uncontrolled epidemic of ovine paratuberculosis. It ended just prior to a temporary ban on live export of tropical cattle to Indonesia that induced a major market failure and led to severe morbidity and mortality on some beef properties. The second drought period progressed in severity and culminated in the most extreme bushfires recorded, causing unprecedented levels of mortality, morbidity and suffering in farmed animals and wildlife. Temperature extremes have also caused periodic heat-associated or cold-induced hyopthermia losses, requiring increased vigilance and careful management to reduce both temperature-induced stress during transport and the high ovine peri-parturient losses traditionally observed in extensive sheep farming. Several issues remain controversial, including surgical mulesing of wool sheep to manage flystrike, and the continuing live export trade of sheep and cattle. However, in reviewing the increasingly complex welfare challenges for the extensive livestock population industries that are export trade dependent and remain vulnerable to welfare activism, it appears progress has been made. These include development of prescribed livestock welfare Standards and Guidelines and the introduction of the Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS) to address export concerns. Further, the sheep mulesing crisis led to improved producer welfare attitudes and practices, including pain management during aversive husbandry procedures that is now occurring globally. Finally, innovations in animal welfare surveillance and assessment, are additional encouraging signs that suggest improving change management of extensive farm animal welfare is occurring that provides lessons well-beyond Australian shores.

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Section: Progress With Surveillance Assessment and New Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Progress With Livestock Welfare in Extensive Production Systems: Lessons From Australia

Windsor

2021

Front. Vet. Sci.

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“…Finally, cows treated with FM were less likely to abduct their tail from their body or show an arched back on d 3 p.p., representing the day after treatment. Abnormal tail positioning and back arching are typical symptoms of abdominal pain in cattle (Millman, 2013;Braun et al, 2020;Yu et al, 2020). Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have already proven efficient in reducing symptoms or decreasing biomarkers of pain after parturition in cattle (Newby et al, 2013b;Barragan et al, 2018a).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of a single transdermal administration of flunixin meglumine in early postpartum Holstein Friesian dairy cows: Part 1. Inflammatory and metabolic markers, uterine health, and indicators of pain

Schmitt

Pieper

Borchardt

et al. 2023

Journal of Dairy Science

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The objectives of this study were to assess the effects of a single transdermal administration of flunixin meglumine (FM) in early postpartum Holstein Friesian dairy cows on serum concentrations of inflammatory and metabolic markers, uterine health, and indicators of pain. The hypothesis was that the anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, and analgetic effects of the pharmaceutic agent would reduce systemic inflammation, resulting in improved metabolic and inflammatory profile, diminished incidence of metritis, and reduced expression of pain. A total of 500 cows (153 primiparous, 347 multiparous) from 3 different commercial dairy farms in the northeast of Germany were included in a randomized controlled clinical trial. Farms were preselected based on high haptoglobin concentrations in their fresh lactating cows. Cows were excluded if they had experienced dystocia, stillbirth, or twin birth, or if they showed any signs of milk fever, retained fetal membranes, or fever (>40°C). The cows were treated once with either FM (3.33 mg/kg) or a placebo as control (CON) through transdermal administration between 24 to 36 h postpartum (d 2). General health examinations were performed (daily from d 2-8 and additionally on d 15 postpartum), vaginal discharge was assessed using the Metricheck device (d 8 and 15 postpartum) and serum samples were analyzed for inflammatory and metabolic markers (d 2, 4, and 6 postpartum). Effects of treatment, parity, sampling day, and their interactions were evaluated using mixed effects models. Primiparous cows treated with FM showed lower serum haptoglobin concentrations (0.90 ± 0.08 vs. 1.17 ± 0.07 g/L; ± standard error of the mean) and higher serum albumin concentrations (35.5 ± 0.31 vs. 34.8 ± 0.31 g/L) on d 6 postpartum. They also had a lower risk for purulent vaginal discharge with or without a fever compared with CON cows on d 15 postpartum (odds ratio for CON vs. FM: 1.63, 95% CI: 1.26-2.00), and body temperature was lower throughout the first 15 d in milk (39.1 ± 0.11 vs. 39.2 ± 0.11°C). Multiparous cows treated with FM had lower serum β-hydroxybutyrate concentrations on d 4 postpartum (0.71 ± 0.05 vs. 0.78 ± 0.05 mmol/L) and d 6 postpartum (0.74 ± 0.05 vs. 0.80 ± 0.05 mmol/L). Regardless of parity, FM-treated cows were significantly less likely to abduct their tail from their body (14.3 vs. 23.6%) and show an arched back (27.9 vs. 39.7%) on the day after treatment compared with CON cows. It can be concluded that FM treatment slightly reduced inflammation and diminished the risk for metritis in primiparous cows, improved metabolic profile in multiparous cows, and reduced expressions of pain in all cows.

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“…It is also feasible in younger animals and is well tolerated due to the small size of the Willis instrument and the small surgical wound [ 13 , 22 ]. Nevertheless, spaying is a painful procedure and there is a risk of morbidity and mortality [ 13 , 15 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. The main cause is postoperative haemorrhage arising from the ovarian blood vessels, which are not ligated.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is commonly performed by veterinarians and non-veterinary licenced operators in jurisdictions where permitted. While spay procedures have been shown to induce pain, stress, morbidity and mortality, they are mostly conducted without the use of analgesia or anti-inflammatory medication [ 15 ]. Thus, practical pain mitigation strategies are in need of development.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uterine Tube Resection by Vaginotomy as an Alternative to Ovariectomy in Mature Cattle

Irons

Mooring

Warburton

et al. 2023

Animals

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The prevention of pregnancy is desirable for female cattle destined for sale in the northern Australian rangelands for both economic and welfare reasons. Controlled access to bulls is often not feasible, nor are any non-surgical methods currently available. Many females are therefore surgically spayed. This study describes a technique for uterine tube resection (UTR), which leaves the ovaries intact and is performed using a vaginal approach, and compares the outcomes from 70 Brahman cows subjected to the procedure with 60 heifers spayed using the dropped ovary technique. The animals were monitored for 10 days following the surgery. There were no mortalities, and two animals were treated for illnesses after the UTRs and recovered. The animals subjected to both surgical procedures showed signs of pelvic discomfort and mild inflammation during recovery. The cows gained an average of 9.3 kg (SD 14.5 kg) of weight over the 10 days of the study compared to the spayed heifers, which lost 3.5 kg (SD 13.3 kg), with 19 and 63% of the animals in each of the groups losing weight, respectively. Uterine tube resection can be considered as a viable alternative to surgical spaying.

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

Cited by 5 publications

References 27 publications

Progress With Livestock Welfare in Extensive Production Systems: Lessons From Australia

Progress With Livestock Welfare in Extensive Production Systems: Lessons From Australia

Effects of a single transdermal administration of flunixin meglumine in early postpartum Holstein Friesian dairy cows: Part 1. Inflammatory and metabolic markers, uterine health, and indicators of pain

Uterine Tube Resection by Vaginotomy as an Alternative to Ovariectomy in Mature Cattle

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