Meat&Poultry - August 2013 - 80

From the Corral
BY DR. TEMPLE GRANDIN
meatpoultry@sosland.com

Relieving
painful practices
cedure would cause additional stress

short nozzle. The livestock industry

from handling the animals twice. In

needs to work on getting this gel ap-

a dairy, it is easy to handle the calf a

proved in the US.

second time because it is already restrained in a small pen. On a ranch,

Jan Bowers discussed the need to dif-

twice. In Australia, the Bayer Com-

O

Fear vs. discomfort

a wild calf would have to be caught

ferentiate different types of distressful

pany has won formal drug approval

sensations so that better treatments

n the farm, a major welfare con-

for use of this pain-relief product on

can be devised. There is fear, the feel-

cern is painful practices such as

various livestock.

ing of being sick and in pain. Pain has

castration and dehorning. At the Aus-

The secret to creating a local anes-

two dimensions – acute pain and in-

tralian Veterinary Association Con-

thetic that can be applied at the time

flammatory pain. Inflammatory pain

ference in Cairns, Australia, Peter

of the surgery was mixing two local

may be a response to an anti-inflam-

Windsor from the Univ. of Sydney

anesthetics with a gooey, sticky gel.

matory drug such as Meloxicam.

presented exciting findings on a prod-

The mixture also contains an anti-

Fear and the feeling of being sick

uct that can be used to relieve pain

septic and epinephrine, which helps

are two different things. Normally,

after castration and dehorning. His

reduce blood loss. The gel was the

animals that receive a shock in a cer-

product would make it much more

secret to its success because after the

tain location will avoid entering that

practical to provide pain relief after

product is applied, it sticks to the cut

place. This is called contextural con-

castration or dehorning of beef cattle

surfaces and stays on.

ditioning. Contextural conditioning

and sheep.

Three measurements of pain re-

will occur if cattle are handled roughly

A major disadvantage of local an-

lief were recorded – thermography

the first time they go in a corral. They

esthetics for beef cattle is that it takes

(which is how hot the wound is), a

may resist going back into the “bad”

10 to 15 minutes for an injection of lo-

pressure test and rate of healing. The

place in the future because it was as-

cal anesthetics to numb the area. On a

gel improved all of these measure-

sociated with a painful experience.

dairy, a two-step procedure is easy to

ments. The product requires no skill

The nasty feeling of being sick is

do because the calves are kept in small

to apply and it is applied with a device

not subject to contextural condition-

pens. On a beef ranch, a two-step pro-

that looks like a drenching gun with a

ing. When either an animal or person
has fever and chills, they want to rest
and get away. In the wild, it would be
counterproductive for an animal to
avoid a safe hiding place when it got
sick. Contextural conditioning in this
situation would cause it to be more
likely to get eaten by predators. This
shows that the feeling of being sick is
very different than fear. ■
Dr. Temple Grandin operates Grandin Livestock
Systems Inc., Fort Collins, Colo., and is a faculty
member in the animal science department at
Colorado State Univ.

80

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