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Pain assessment and management in cows and calves – Part I
Manteca X.
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Animal welfare is an essential element of modern animal production. First and foremost, animal welfare is grounded on ethical concerns that derive from the fact that animals are sentient beings, i.e. able to suffer and experience emotions.
Societal concern over the welfare of farm animals has increased recently and a growing number of citizens in many countries now demand that farm animals are reared, transported and slaughtered as humanely as possible. For example, according to a survey done in 2015 and involving more than 27.000 citizens from the 28 Member States of the European Union, 94 % of them think that it is important to protect the welfare of farm animals. Interestingly, this percentage ranged from 86 and 99 %, showing that even in the EU countries that are supposedly less concerned about the welfare of animals, a clear majority of citizens believe that it should be protected.
Improving animal welfare may have additional benefits. As many welfare problems have a detrimental effect on production, improving the welfare of farm animals very often has positive effects on performance. Also, improving animal welfare is one of the strategies that may contribute to reduce the use of antimicrobials in fam animals.
It is widely accepted that animal welfare encompasses not only the physical health of the animals (i.e. the absence of diseases and injuries) but also their behaviour and emotions. Pain is not only a consequence of several diseases and injuries, but also an aversive emotional experience that often interferes with the expression of normal behaviour. As such, pain is a major welfare issue in farm animals in general, including cows and calves. Therefore, pain prevention and management are key aspects of animal welfare improvement strategies.
This paper will be divided into two sections. In the first section, the principles of pain assessment in animals as well as the economic consequences of pain will be reviewed. The second section will address the major causes of pain in cows and calves. In addition, the general principles underlying some of the strategies to prevent such causes will be discussed.
Pain includes a sensory and an emotional component, the latter being particularly important from an animal welfare standpoint. As emotions are not easily measured in animals, pain assessment is difficult. Indeed, the gold standard of pain assessment in humans is self-reporting, which is not possible in animals. Although there are several physiological indicators that can be used to assess pain or inflammation in animals, including for example plasma concentration of cortisol and acute phase proteins, these are mainly useful in an experimental setting and are not feasible in field conditions. Indeed, assessment of pain in animals in field conditions is mainly based on the observation of behavioural changes. Some behavioural changes will appear regardless of the cause of pain and these include a reduction in feed intake and rumination; licking, rubbing or scratching painful areas; grinding teeth; altered social interactions, and changes in posture to avoid moving or causing contact to a painful body area. Scores based on facial expressions were originally developed to assess pain in laboratory animals and have more recently been developed for some farm species. These scores have been shown to be valid and reliable tools to assess pain and have the advantage of requiring minimal training.
There is growing evidence that pain in farm animals has negative consequences on production efficiency and economic profit. For example, work done in dairy cows has shown that the administration of an anti-inflammatory drug with analgesic properties to cows with mastitis in addition to the usual antibiotic therapy reduces subsequent culling rate. Although the mechanisms underlying this effect are not properly understood, it has been suggested that it may be due to the negative effects of pain on fertility. Similar beneficial effects of NSAIDs in calves with respiratory problems have been found. Studies carried out in several species suggest that preventing pain caused by parturition has positive effects on both the dam and the offspring.
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Affiliation of the authors at the time of publication
Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Spain
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