Greater understanding about livestock’s ability to sense pain has more vets integrating pain relief into some
treatments, as regulations also start to tighten on treatment standards.
On the 1st of October this year, it will be a legal requirement that all cattle being disbudded or dehorned will need
appropriate and effective local anaesthetic that has been authorised by a veterinarian. The New Zealand Veterinary
Guidelines also recommend the use of an appropriate long-acting pain killer at the time of disbudding and dehorning.
Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health NZ technical veterinarian James Laidlaw says the upcoming requirements for de-budding
reflect a shifting attitude towards the understanding and application of pain relief, as well as moves to improve
welfare in farm animals.
“Our understanding and recognition of animals’ ability to sense pain has shifted considerably in the past decade. But
results from various global surveys indicate there is still quite a wide range of opinions from vets and farmers about
where they perceive different operations and conditions sit on the pain scale.”
Globally, surveys conducted amongst vets and farmers over the past 10-15 years have highlighted the difficulty of
interpreting pain in cattle. This is mostly due to the fact these animals have evolved to hide displays of pain.
“Vets and farmers have been well aligned in their assessments, but the surveys have highlighted wide ranges of
individual interpretations of how painful various procedures and conditions are in cattle.”
Historically, a lack of standardised guides to assessing pain in cattle and benchmarking of how painful conditions and
procedures are has only made interpreting pain and approaching pain relief difficult.
Meantime farmers are facing increasing demands from consumers for higher welfare standards in farm animals and higher
public expectations around farm animal welfare.
These along with the provision of pain relief are driving the industry to be more conscious about addressing pain in
farm animals.
“This is something we need to be considering if we wish to market the highest quality of product and to maintain our
“clean, green image” locally and globally.”
Mastitis ranks as a significant pain causing condition in dairy cows.
Work by one of the country’s leading animal researchers indicates offering anti-inflammatory “pain relief” medication
alongside antibiotic mastitis treatments, even for moderate cases, can improve that animal’s response rate and
productivity.
Dr Scott McDougall’s 2009 and 2016 studies on mammary health and fertility found using a non-steroidal pain reliever
like Metacam®20 when treating even mild cases of mastitis resulted in lowered somatic cell counts.
There was also a 42% lower likelihood cows would be culled for mastitis, when compared with placebo treated cows.
Researchers found administering Metacam®20 alongside antibiotic mastitis treatment improved the probability the cow
would conceive to artificial insemination on her first service, and also increased the probability she would be pregnant
by 120 days post-calving by 29%.
A further unexpected finding was cows treated with Metacam®20 and antibiotic mastitis treatments had a 32% higher chance
of bacteriological cure, when compared to cows treated with antibiotic and a placebo.
“So even putting aside the welfare issues of delivering anti-inflammatory pain relief medications, there are proven
production benefits that also sit alongside that make addressing the pain element that accompanies mastitis well
worthwhile,” says Laidlaw.
ENDS