The effect of needle-free administration of local anesthetic on the behavior and physiology of castrated pigs

Sutherland, Mhairi A.; Backus, Brittany L.; Brooks, Tiffanie A.; McGlone, John J.

doi:10.1016/j.jveb.2017.07.003

Cited by 12 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Regarding the analysis of stress hormones after castration after the administration of local anesthesia, the results of previous studies are inconclusive. Sutherland et al [ 39 ] did not find a reduced cortisol response after castration with the administration of local anesthetics compared to piglets castrated without anesthesia. In contrast, in two other studies, the serum cortisol levels of piglets treated with local anesthetics were even higher than those in the control groups [ 40 , 41 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whereas different concentrations and application techniques of lidocaine [2,3,8,9,[15][16][17][18][19]21,39,41,[47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56] and procaine [9,17,41,42,[57][58][59] have been excessively studied in the context of piglet castration, bupivacaine was analyzed only in combination with lidocaine by Bonastre et al [60]. To the best of our knowledge, mepivacaine, an approved drug in several European countries for intraarticular and epidural injections in horses, has never been used in studies examining piglet castration.…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

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Local anesthesia in piglets undergoing castration—A comparative study to investigate the analgesic effects of four local anesthetics on the basis of acute physiological responses and limb movements

et al. 2020

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Surgical castration of male piglets without analgesia is a painful procedure. This prospective, randomized and double-blinded study aimed to evaluate the analgesic effects of four different local anesthetics for piglet castration during the first week of life. In total, 54 piglets aged 3 to 7 days were distributed into 6 treatment groups: handling (H); castration without pain relief (sodium chloride, NaCl); and castration with a local anesthetic: 4% procaine (P), 2% lidocaine (L), 0.5% bupivacaine (B) or 20 mg/ml mepivacaine (M). By excluding stress and fear as disruptive factors via a minimum anesthesia model, all piglets received individual minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) isoflurane anesthesia. Twenty minutes before castration, all treatment groups except group H received one injection per testis. Then, 0.5 ml of a local anesthetic or NaCl was injected intratesticularly (i.t.), and 0.5 ml was administered subscrotally. Acute physiological responses to noxious stimuli at injection and castration were evaluated by measuring blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), cortisol, epinephrine, norepinephrine and chromogranin A (CgA); limb movements were quantified. The results confirm that castration without analgesia is highly painful. Surgical castration without pain relief revealed significant changes in mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) and HR. Local anesthetic administration significantly reduced changes in BP and HR associated with castration. Piglets receiving a preoperative local anesthetic exhibited the fewest limb movements during castration, while the NaCl group exhibited the most. Injection itself was not associated with significant changes in MAP or HR. However, many piglets exhibited limb movements during injection, indicating that the injection itself causes nociceptive pain. No significant differences were found between groups regarding parameters of plasma cortisol, catecholamines and CgA. In conclusion, all four local anesthetics administered are highly effective at reducing signs of nociception during castration under light isoflurane anesthesia. However, injection of a local anesthetic seems to be painful.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Local anesthesia in piglets undergoing castration—A comparative study to investigate the analgesic effects of four local anesthetics on the basis of acute physiological responses and limb movements

et al. 2020

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“…sheep and cattle) (Dinniss et al, 1997;Kent et al, 1998;McMeekan et al, 1998;Sutherland et al, 1999Sutherland et al, , 2002Stafford et al, 2002) including surgical castration and tail docking in pigs (Prunier et al, 2005;Carroll et al, 2006;Sutherland et al, 2012). Numerous studies have shown that surgical castration causes a significant and marked increase in pigs' cortisol concentrations (Prunier et al, 2005;Carroll et al, 2006;Sutherland et al, 2010Sutherland et al, , 2012Sutherland et al, , 2017. However, handling alone only causes a slight but non-significant increase in cortisol (Prunier et al, 2005), suggesting that the increase in cortisol in response to castration is predominantly due to the pain of the procedure and not the stress of handling.…”

Section: Cortisolmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…120-and 180-minutes post-procedure (Prunier et al, 2005;Sutherland et al, 2012Sutherland et al, , 2017. Therefore, to evaluate the efficacy of different pain mitigation strategies to reduce the pain caused by surgical castration, cortisol concentrations should be measured immediately before the procedure to assess baseline levels, between 15 and 60 min post castration to assess changes in peak cortisol levels and then again at 120 min to confirm that levels have returned to baseline.…”

Section: Cortisolmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proposed multidimensional pain outcome methodology to demonstrate analgesic drug efficacy and facilitate future drug approval for piglet castration

Baysinger¹,

Webb

Brown

et al. 2021

Anim. Health. Res. Rev.

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Castration of male piglets in the United States is conducted without analgesics because no Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved products are labeled for pain control in swine. The absence of approved products is primarily due to a wide variation in how pain is measured in suckling piglets and the lack of validated pain-specific outcomes individually indistinct from other biological responses, such as general stress or inflammation responses with cortisol. Simply put, to measure pain mitigation, measurement of pain must be specific, quantifiable, and defined. Therefore, given the need for mitigating castration pain, a consortium of researchers, veterinarians, industry, and regulatory agencies was formed to identify potential animal-based outcomes and develop a methodology, based on the known scientific research, to measure pain and the efficacy of mitigation strategies. The outcome-based measures included physiological, neuroendocrine, behavioral, and production parameters. Ultimately, this consortium aims to provide a validated multimodal methodology to demonstrate analgesic drug efficacy for piglet castration. Measurable outcomes were selected based on published studies suggesting their validity, reliability, and sensitivity for the direct or indirect measurement of pain associated with surgical castration in piglets. Outcomes to be considered are observation of pain behaviors (i.e. ethogram defined behaviors and piglet grimace scale), gait parameters measured with a pressure mat, infrared thermography of skin temperature of the cranium and periphery of the eye, and blood biomarkers. Other measures include body weight and mortality rate. This standardized measurement of the outcome variable's primary goal is to facilitate consistency and rigor by developing a research methodology utilizing endpoints that are well-defined and reliably measure pain in piglets. The resulting methodology will facilitate and guide the evaluation of the effectiveness of comprehensive analgesic interventions for 3- to 5-day-old piglets following surgical castration.

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“…Detailed reviews on the subject have recently been published [ 17 , 18 ], where it was emphasized that there is no standardized procedure yet to assess the impact of castration and the efficacy of analgesic treatments. However, general findings with regard to movements and vocalizations indicate that castration induces (i) higher screams with higher frequency, energy and longer call duration [ 10 , 13 , 16 ] as well as (ii) increased movements of front and hind limbs and back, trembling and escape attempts [ 7 , 19 , 20 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of tearing spermatic cords during castration in live and dead piglets and consequences on welfare

et al. 2021

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Background Although the tearing of tissues during castration is forbidden in the EU, it is still routinely applied in many countries. The goal of this study was to evaluate vocalizations and movements of male piglets undergoing castration by applying different techniques and pain treatments based on scores under practical conditions (Trial 1, n = 50) and to investigate anatomical features after castration of dead piglets with different techniques (Trial 2, n = 28). Results In Trial 1, treatment groups did not significantly influence the duration of castration. Both the duration of vocalization and the scores for vocalizations and movements were lower in piglets castrated under general anesthesia (P < 0.05). Behavior scores in conscious piglets did not differ. The incision and extraction caused lower vocalizations and movements than the pulling and severing of spermatic cords (P < 0.01). Movements were more intense during tearing of the spermatic cords than during cutting at the first and second severing (P < 0.01). In both trials, the remains of spermatic cords protruded tendentially more often from castration wounds after severing by tearing (P < 0.09). In Trial 2, the minimum, mean and maximum lengths of the testicles and spermatic cords were extended when severing was realized by tearing (P < 0.01). The mean relative testicle weight of 1.05‰ in dead piglets castrated by tearing was larger than that in dead piglets castrated by cutting (0.91‰) (P < 0.05). Conclusions The trials uncovered significant differences between behavior expressed by piglets castrated by tearing or cutting, indicating a higher pain level in the tearing group. It was found that the castration technique tearing increased the amount of removed tissues and might cause intraabdominal damage to the remaining tissues and vessels in a yet unknown dimension. These findings should be considered for implementation and stricter enforcement of the ban on tearing for castration.

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The effect of needle-free administration of local anesthetic on the behavior and physiology of castrated pigs

Cited by 12 publications

References 24 publications

Local anesthesia in piglets undergoing castration—A comparative study to investigate the analgesic effects of four local anesthetics on the basis of acute physiological responses and limb movements

Local anesthesia in piglets undergoing castration—A comparative study to investigate the analgesic effects of four local anesthetics on the basis of acute physiological responses and limb movements

Proposed multidimensional pain outcome methodology to demonstrate analgesic drug efficacy and facilitate future drug approval for piglet castration

Impact of tearing spermatic cords during castration in live and dead piglets and consequences on welfare

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