VET’S VIEW Using analgesics to manage pain can increase productivity and reduce suffering and reliance on antimicrobials in dairy systems. Understanding the welfare and regulatory considerations of pain management interventions is important. Debbie James reports.
Benefits of pain relief
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attle experience pain but they are good at masking it. Procedures such as disbudding or castration are unquestionably painful and so too is pain resulting from a whole range of conditions, including pneumonia, scour and mastitis. Emily Craven, ruminant clinical director at the Oakwood Veterinary Group, advises stockmen and women to apply a simple test to gauge when an intervention is needed to mitigate pain. Acid test She says: “My acid test is ‘if you think a procedure or illness is something which might have you reaching for the paracetamol, that animal needs pain relief’. “In terms of welfare, if something hurts, the cow or calf is going to be more comfortable if you give her an analgesic.” Using a local anaesthetic to numb an area before a procedure should not be seen as a reason to not give pain relief too, Ms Craven adds. “After procedures such as disbudding, the anaesthetic quickly wears off. A non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug [NSAID] is going to last much longer, depending on the duration of action of the product used.” The benefits of pain relief for painful procedures, such as
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castration and disbudding, are widely acknowledged and supported by field trials. In the case of illness such as calf scours, normally caused by viruses, bacteria and protozoans, the use of NSAIDs can help reduce inflammation and scarring in the gut. Aside from the obvious welfare benefits, production is enhanced if animals suffer less pain; as a result they will often return to normal feeding and other activities much faster than they would without pain relief, usually resulting in better growth, feed conversion efficiency or milk production. Ruminants often do not show signs of pain to the same degree as humans, because as prey animals, they have evolved to mask it. Ms Craven says: “We hear farmers talk of their livestock being stoic when it comes to certain procedures and that they are firing on all four cylinders after
The benefits of pain relief for procedures such as disbudding are widely acknowledged and supported by field trials.
a procedure. It is true that a cow may not overtly show pain and I think that is why traditionally pain relief has not featured highly in farming systems.” And while farmers might be right in suggesting their animals do fine without that intervention, Ms Craven says: “What I would say is that they do much better with it.” Pain reduction at castration, for instance, reduces the cortisol release and stress responses which impair immune function. As a result, the calf will return to normal feeding and other activities in a much faster time than they would without any pain relief. There are visual cues farmers can use to assess when an animal is in discomfort, for instance after
At the end of the day, pain management is an absolute requirement EMILY CRAVEN
being subjected to acute pain from disbudding calves show increased behavioural responses, such as ear flicking and head shaking. But through greater use of technology in dairy systems, including automatic calf feeders and electronic tags, farmers have actual performance data at their fingertips which reflects when an animal is in pain. Discomfort For instance, a calf will not feed as frequently and growth will be checked; in cows, when milk production is down it can be an indicator of discomfort, says Ms Craven. She says: “Historically, farmers might have perceived that an animal was doing okay, but they now have evidence which might show otherwise.” Regulatory frameworks are now in place which make it a legal requirement to protect animals from pain, including the Code of Recommendation for Welfare. Aside from these, many milk buyers also demand proactive pain management of their suppliers, and changes to the Red Tractor assurance scheme from November 1, 2021, includes
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