Analgesia and/or anaesthesia during piglet castration–part I: efficacy of farm protocols in pain management
Articolo
Data di Pubblicazione:
2021
Abstract:
Pain alleviation associated with surgical castration of piglets is a debated welfare issue. The present
study compares the effect of different protocols involving analgesia and/or anaesthesia or
sedation suitable under field conditions, with the aim to alleviate pain due to castration in piglets.
A randomised within-litter design, with 50 replicates, compared 7 treatments applied 10min
before castration: HAND: positive control, handling only; CTRL: negative control, physiological
saline, i.m.; MEL: meloxicam, i.m.; AZA: azaperone, i.m.; PROC: local anaesthesia with procaine and
adrenaline, subcutaneously; AZA-MEL: joint administration of azaperone and meloxicam; PROCMEL:
procaine and meloxicam. Efficacy of pain relief was assessed during a 180 min period after
castration by serum cortisol and glycaemia, algometry and behaviour. CTRL, AZA, PROC and
AZA-MEL piglets showed an increase in cortisol concentration 60min after castration compared
to HAND. Both groups with azaperone (AZA and AZA-MEL) developed concentrations even
higher than CTRL (p<.001). HAND treatment showed cortisol levels comparable only to MEL and
PROC-MEL (p>.05). CRTL and PROC piglets reacted to the algometer at an average lower pressure
than HAND (p¼.03), differently to the other treatments that showed similar skin sensitivity
to HAND (p>.05). No differences in glycaemia and behaviour were observed among treatments.
The results suggest that using meloxicam alone might offer a promising option in reducing the
expression of pain-related parameters in piglets after surgical castration, however, it appears
more efficient when used alone than in association with the anaesthetic agents tested. Procaine
administered alone and azaperone seems unsuited to the purpose considered.
Tipologia CRIS:
03A-Articolo su Rivista
Keywords:
Analgesia; anaesthesia; piglet; castration
Elenco autori:
Scollo, A., Contiero, B., De Benedictis G. M., Galli, M. C., Benatti, D., Gottardo, F.
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