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Ewes Direct Most Maternal Attention towards Lambs that Show the Greatest Pain-Related Behavioural Responses

Although neonatal farm animals are frequently subjected to painful management procedures, the role of maternal behaviour in pain coping, has not been much studied. We investigated whether ewes were able to distinguish between lambs in pain and those that were not, and whether their behaviour altered...

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Autores principales: Futro, Agnieszka, Masłowska, Katarzyna, Dwyer, Cathy M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4517774/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26217942
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0134024
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author Futro, Agnieszka
Masłowska, Katarzyna
Dwyer, Cathy M.
author_facet Futro, Agnieszka
Masłowska, Katarzyna
Dwyer, Cathy M.
author_sort Futro, Agnieszka
collection PubMed
description Although neonatal farm animals are frequently subjected to painful management procedures, the role of maternal behaviour in pain coping, has not been much studied. We investigated whether ewes were able to distinguish between lambs in pain and those that were not, and whether their behaviour altered depending on the severity of lamb pain. Eighty male lambs were allocated to one of 4 pain treatments within 24 hours of birth. Lambs were either handled only (C), bilaterally castrated with tight rubber rings (RR), as for RR but with the application of a Burdizzo clamp immediately proximal to the ring (Combined) or subjected to short scrotum castration (SSC) where the testicles were retained within the abdomen and only the scrotum removed. The behaviour of the ewe, treated lamb and untreated sibling where present (n = 54) were recorded for 30 minutes after treatment. Castration treatment increased the expression of abnormal standing and lying postures, specific pain-related behaviours (head-turning, stamping/kicking, easing quarters, tail wagging) and composite pain scores (P<0.001 for all). The greatest expression of pain-related behaviours was shown by lambs in the RR group, which were the only group to show rolling responses indicative of severe pain, followed by the SSC group. Ewes expressed more licking/sniffing responses to the RR and SSC lambs than towards the Combined and C lambs (P<0.05), and oriented most to RR lambs and least to C lambs (P<0.001). Ewes with two lambs also directed more attention towards the treated than the untreated lamb (P<0.001). The quantity of maternal care directed towards the lamb was positively correlated with the expression of active pain behaviours. The data demonstrate that ewes are able to discriminate between lambs in pain and those that are not, and that their response is increased with a greater severity of pain.
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spelling pubmed-45177742015-07-31 Ewes Direct Most Maternal Attention towards Lambs that Show the Greatest Pain-Related Behavioural Responses Futro, Agnieszka Masłowska, Katarzyna Dwyer, Cathy M. PLoS One Research Article Although neonatal farm animals are frequently subjected to painful management procedures, the role of maternal behaviour in pain coping, has not been much studied. We investigated whether ewes were able to distinguish between lambs in pain and those that were not, and whether their behaviour altered depending on the severity of lamb pain. Eighty male lambs were allocated to one of 4 pain treatments within 24 hours of birth. Lambs were either handled only (C), bilaterally castrated with tight rubber rings (RR), as for RR but with the application of a Burdizzo clamp immediately proximal to the ring (Combined) or subjected to short scrotum castration (SSC) where the testicles were retained within the abdomen and only the scrotum removed. The behaviour of the ewe, treated lamb and untreated sibling where present (n = 54) were recorded for 30 minutes after treatment. Castration treatment increased the expression of abnormal standing and lying postures, specific pain-related behaviours (head-turning, stamping/kicking, easing quarters, tail wagging) and composite pain scores (P<0.001 for all). The greatest expression of pain-related behaviours was shown by lambs in the RR group, which were the only group to show rolling responses indicative of severe pain, followed by the SSC group. Ewes expressed more licking/sniffing responses to the RR and SSC lambs than towards the Combined and C lambs (P<0.05), and oriented most to RR lambs and least to C lambs (P<0.001). Ewes with two lambs also directed more attention towards the treated than the untreated lamb (P<0.001). The quantity of maternal care directed towards the lamb was positively correlated with the expression of active pain behaviours. The data demonstrate that ewes are able to discriminate between lambs in pain and those that are not, and that their response is increased with a greater severity of pain. Public Library of Science 2015-07-28 /pmc/articles/PMC4517774/ /pubmed/26217942 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0134024 Text en © 2015 Futro et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Futro, Agnieszka
Masłowska, Katarzyna
Dwyer, Cathy M.
Ewes Direct Most Maternal Attention towards Lambs that Show the Greatest Pain-Related Behavioural Responses
title Ewes Direct Most Maternal Attention towards Lambs that Show the Greatest Pain-Related Behavioural Responses
title_full Ewes Direct Most Maternal Attention towards Lambs that Show the Greatest Pain-Related Behavioural Responses
title_fullStr Ewes Direct Most Maternal Attention towards Lambs that Show the Greatest Pain-Related Behavioural Responses
title_full_unstemmed Ewes Direct Most Maternal Attention towards Lambs that Show the Greatest Pain-Related Behavioural Responses
title_short Ewes Direct Most Maternal Attention towards Lambs that Show the Greatest Pain-Related Behavioural Responses
title_sort ewes direct most maternal attention towards lambs that show the greatest pain-related behavioural responses
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4517774/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26217942
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0134024
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