Development and Validation of the Unesp-Botucatu Goat Acute Pain Scale

Abstract

We aimed to develop and validate the Unesp-Botucatu goat acute pain scale (UGAPS). Thirty goats (5 negative controls and 25 submitted to orchiectomy) were filmed for 7 min at the time points 24 h before and 2 h, 3 h (1 h after analgesia), and 24 h after orchiectomy. After content validation, according to an ethogram and literature, four blind observers analyzed the videos randomly to score the UGAPS, repeating the same assessment in 30 days. According to the confirmatory factor analysis, the UGAPS is unidimensional. Intra- and interobserver reliability was very good for all raters (Intraclass correlation coefficient ≥85%). Spearman’s correlation between UGAPS versus VAS was 0.85 confirming the criterion validity. Internal consistency was 0.60 for Cronbach’s α Cronbach and 0.67 for McDonald’s ω. The item-total correlation was acceptable for 80% of the items (0.3–0.7). Specificity and sensitivity based on the cut-off point were 99% and 90%, respectively. The scale was responsive and demonstrated construct validity shown by the increase and decrease of scores after surgery pain and analgesia, respectively. The cut-off point for rescue analgesia is ≥3 of 10, with an area under the curve of 95.27%. The UGAPS presents content, criterion, and construct validities, responsiveness, and reliability to assess postoperative pain in castrated goats.

Pain Assessment in Animals: human experts, make way for AI!

“…The 'ground truth' used in this framework are the time points before and after surgery, which are used for the definition of the classes No Pain/Pain respectively for measuring pain recognition performance. However, pain is an individual-based sensation and differently from humans, we cannot easily communicate with animals, therefore it is conceivable that the best form human assimilate animal expression is by body language given by ethograms, that is why behavioral changes are apparently the best way to diagnose clinical pain in animals as widely reported [33,[35][36][37].…”

“…The first grimace scales were developed for rodents and they are now available for many mammalian species [21], including rats [22], rabbits [23], horses [24], pigs [25], ferrets [26], sheep [27,28] and cats [29,30]. Numerous instruments based on behavior have also been validated for all domestic species, like cats [31], dogs [32], rabbits [33], pigs [34], goats [35], sheep [36], horses [24] , donkeys [37] and cattle [38].…”