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Evaluation of Pain Mitigation Strategies in Goat Kids after Cautery Disbudding

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Disbudding is a routine procedure performed in goat kids at an early age, especially the ones in the dairy industry. The procedure is mainly done to increase safety for other animals and workers in intensive dairy farms. Disbudding is a painful procedure that affects the welfare of t...

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Autores principales: Ajuda, Inês, Battini, Monica, Mattiello, Silvana, Arcuri, Cecilia, Stilwell, George
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7070287/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32054076
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani10020277
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author Ajuda, Inês
Battini, Monica
Mattiello, Silvana
Arcuri, Cecilia
Stilwell, George
author_facet Ajuda, Inês
Battini, Monica
Mattiello, Silvana
Arcuri, Cecilia
Stilwell, George
author_sort Ajuda, Inês
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: Disbudding is a routine procedure performed in goat kids at an early age, especially the ones in the dairy industry. The procedure is mainly done to increase safety for other animals and workers in intensive dairy farms. Disbudding is a painful procedure that affects the welfare of the kids. Effective and practical pain mitigation strategies to reduce the suffering of goat kids due to disbudding have not yet been found. We studied two different pain mitigation strategies for this procedure and concluded that they were not entirely effective. Consumers are increasingly aware of animal farming practices, especially the ones that can lead to suffering and pain, such as disbudding. It is crucial that pain mitigation strategies as well as possible alternative solutions to disbudding continue to be investigated. ABSTRACT: Nowadays, most of the goat milk production in developed countries is done in intensive indoors production systems. In these systems, procedures such as disbudding are performed routinely. Disbudding is done in young goat kids and is a recognised as a painful procedure. Pain mitigation strategies have been extensively researched, but a method that is effective in mitigating pain as well as being safe and practical has not yet been found. In this paper we used three treatment groups: one control and two groups with pain mitigation strategies for cautery disbudding, one using local anaesthesia (lidocaine) and a second one using local anaesthesia (lidocaine) plus an analgesic (flunixin meglumine). The behaviour of twenty-seven goat kids was recorded for three hours after disbudding. Overall, the goat kids that received both pain mitigation treatments dedicated more time performing active and positive behaviours. Nevertheless, the incidence of behaviours related to pain and discomfort was not consistently reduced. Research is still needed to find a practical and effective pain mitigation strategy for disbudding. A solution to this challenge would improve animal welfare as well as address societal concerns linked to the suffering of farm animals.
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spelling pubmed-70702872020-03-19 Evaluation of Pain Mitigation Strategies in Goat Kids after Cautery Disbudding Ajuda, Inês Battini, Monica Mattiello, Silvana Arcuri, Cecilia Stilwell, George Animals (Basel) Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: Disbudding is a routine procedure performed in goat kids at an early age, especially the ones in the dairy industry. The procedure is mainly done to increase safety for other animals and workers in intensive dairy farms. Disbudding is a painful procedure that affects the welfare of the kids. Effective and practical pain mitigation strategies to reduce the suffering of goat kids due to disbudding have not yet been found. We studied two different pain mitigation strategies for this procedure and concluded that they were not entirely effective. Consumers are increasingly aware of animal farming practices, especially the ones that can lead to suffering and pain, such as disbudding. It is crucial that pain mitigation strategies as well as possible alternative solutions to disbudding continue to be investigated. ABSTRACT: Nowadays, most of the goat milk production in developed countries is done in intensive indoors production systems. In these systems, procedures such as disbudding are performed routinely. Disbudding is done in young goat kids and is a recognised as a painful procedure. Pain mitigation strategies have been extensively researched, but a method that is effective in mitigating pain as well as being safe and practical has not yet been found. In this paper we used three treatment groups: one control and two groups with pain mitigation strategies for cautery disbudding, one using local anaesthesia (lidocaine) and a second one using local anaesthesia (lidocaine) plus an analgesic (flunixin meglumine). The behaviour of twenty-seven goat kids was recorded for three hours after disbudding. Overall, the goat kids that received both pain mitigation treatments dedicated more time performing active and positive behaviours. Nevertheless, the incidence of behaviours related to pain and discomfort was not consistently reduced. Research is still needed to find a practical and effective pain mitigation strategy for disbudding. A solution to this challenge would improve animal welfare as well as address societal concerns linked to the suffering of farm animals. MDPI 2020-02-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7070287/ /pubmed/32054076 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani10020277 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Ajuda, Inês
Battini, Monica
Mattiello, Silvana
Arcuri, Cecilia
Stilwell, George
Evaluation of Pain Mitigation Strategies in Goat Kids after Cautery Disbudding
title Evaluation of Pain Mitigation Strategies in Goat Kids after Cautery Disbudding
title_full Evaluation of Pain Mitigation Strategies in Goat Kids after Cautery Disbudding
title_fullStr Evaluation of Pain Mitigation Strategies in Goat Kids after Cautery Disbudding
title_full_unstemmed Evaluation of Pain Mitigation Strategies in Goat Kids after Cautery Disbudding
title_short Evaluation of Pain Mitigation Strategies in Goat Kids after Cautery Disbudding
title_sort evaluation of pain mitigation strategies in goat kids after cautery disbudding
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7070287/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32054076
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani10020277
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