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Evaluation of the effect of a topical wound anaesthesia formulation on concentration of serum amyloid A in lambs where the tail was excised surgically
Borobia, M.; Ortín, A.; Tejedor, M...
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Objectives: Tail-docking is a routine global husbandry procedure conducted in lambs to reduce myiasis risk and improve fertility. It is often performed without pain relief, although use of general anaesthesia has been advocated, at an exorbitant cost to farmers. There is an urgent need to find a practical and affordable approach acceptable to farmers that avoids or markedly reduces animal suffering. This study evaluated the effect of a topical anaesthetic ‘spray-on’ wound management formulation containing the local anaesthetics lignocaine and bupivacaine, plus cetramide and adrenalin, in a gel matrix (Tri- Solfen®, Bayer Animal Health, Gordon, NSW, Australia). Impacts of treatments on concentration of the major acute phase protein serum amyloid A (SAA) in lambs, where the tail was excised surgically, with and without use of general anaesthesia, are reported.
Material & Methods: This study was approved by the Ethical Commission of the University of Zaragoza. Forty-four 45-day-old Rasa Aragonesa female lambs with similar weights in a farm in Zaragoza (Spain) were recruited for this study and divided into 4 equal cohorts (n=11): in Group A the tail was excised using a scalpel without using anaesthesia or any additional treatment; in Group B the tail was surgically excised under general anaesthesia; in Group C the tail was removed with a scalpel without prior anaesthesia and treated immediately with Tri-Solfen®; in Group D the tail was surgically excised under general anaesthesia and treatment with Tri-Solfen® applied before suturing of peri-wound skin to close the wound. Blood samples were collected (and sera were obtained and stored at -20 oC until analysed) prior to tail docking (T1), and at 5hr (T2) and 48hr (T3) intervals, plus 7 days later (T4). The concentration of SAA was assessed using a solid phase sandwich ELISA kit (PHASE TM Serum Amyloid A Assay, Tridelta Development Ltd., Maynooth, Ireland). Before statistical analysis, a logarithmic transformation (10log) was used to normalize SAA concentration. Statistical analysis were performed using IBM
SPSS statistics version 26 (2019) software (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA). For each procedure (with or without anaesthesia), a two-way mixed ANOVA was run to understand the effects of treatment (with or without Tri-Solfen®) and time (T1 to T4) on SAA concentration.
Results: In cohorts tail-docked under general anaesthesia (B & D), SAA concentrations increased from T1 to T2, achieving maximum values at T3 and decreasing by T4, with T3 significantly higher (p<0.01) than at T1, T2 and T4. These findings are consistent with previously reported significant el- evations of SAA 48 hours after a noxious stimulus. The cohort tail-docked with Tri-Solfen® (D) had consistently lower SAA levels than the cohort without this wound treatment (B), although statistically significant differences were not determined between these cohorts (p=0.604). In cohorts tail-docked without general anaesthesia (A & C), SAA concentrations of the untreated group (A) displayed similar trends to Groups B and D. However, the SAA concentrations in the Tri-Solfen® treated group (C) failed to achieve the maximum concentrations at T3 and were similar to T1 and T2, decreasing by T4. These re- sults appear to indicate that treatment with Tri-Solfen® avoided the elevation of SAA concentrations that is expected 48 hours after the surgery. Although statistically significant differences were not detected between lambs treated and non-treated with Tri-Solfen® (p=0.913), this is considered most likely due to insufficient sample size of each cohort.
Conclusions: These results and clinical evidence of pain relief presented elsewhere, are encouraging, suggesting that surgical tail-docking without general anaesthesia but wounds are immediately sprayed with Tri-Solfen®, is an affordable and efficacious method of conducting the procedure, although use of larger sample sizes for SAA estimates is recommended to confirm these findings.
Keywords: Lambs, tail-docking, welfare, topical anaesthesia, serum amyloid A.
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Affiliation of the authors at the time of publication
Facultad de Veterinaria. Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain;
Facultad de Veterinaria. Instituto IA2 (Universidad de Zaragoza- CITA), Zaragoza, Spain;
Faculty of Veterinary Science. University of Sydney, Sidney, Australia.
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