Effect of different methods of castration on behaviour and plasma cortisol in calves of three ages

Robertson, I. S.; Kent, J.E.; Molony, V.

doi:10.1016/0034-5288(94)90189-9

Cited by 154 publications

(134 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Researchers have noted increase in specific behaviors such as the number of head shakes, ear twitches, and foot stomps after a painful procedure such as castration. [22][23][24] Other researchers have documented a difference in head shakes and ear twitches following dehorning. [25][26][27][28][29] The frequency of all these behaviors has been associated with increased cortisol concentrations, and increased cortisol concentrations are often associated with stress and fearful events.…”

Section: Observer Monitoring Frequency Of Specific Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Remote Noninvasive Assessment of Pain and Health Status in Cattle

Theurer¹,

Amrine²,

White³

2013

Veterinary Clinics of North America: Food Animal Practice

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SynopsisCattle behavior is frequently monitored to determine health and wellness state of the animal. The objective of this review is to describe potential benefits and challenges of remotely monitoring cattle behavior with available methodologies including clinical illness scores, visual monitoring, accelerometers, pedometers, feed intake and behavioral monitoring, global position systems, real time location systems, thermography images, and rumen telemetry temperature bolus. The behavior of interest, labor required, and monitoring expenses all need to be taken into consideration before deciding which remote behavioral monitoring device is most appropriate.Monitoring the feeding behavior of an animal over a period of time allows establishment of a baseline against which deviations in subsequent behavioral patterns can be evaluated.Interpretation of multiple behavioral responses as an aggregate indicator of animal wellness status rather than as individual outcomes may be a more accurate measure of true state of animal pain or wellness status. Key Points Cattle behavior is frequently monitored to determine health and wellness state.

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Section: Observer Monitoring Frequency Of Specific Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Remote Noninvasive Assessment of Pain and Health Status in Cattle

Theurer¹,

Amrine²,

White³

2013

Veterinary Clinics of North America: Food Animal Practice

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“…However, the methods of castration varied widely across herds, with the most common being small elastrator bands (Coetzee et al, 2010). Castration by rubber Murray, Fick, Pajor, Barkema, Jelinski and Windeyer ring caused significant increases in painful behaviors compared with Burdizzo or surgical techniques (Robertson et al, 1994), have more prolonged effects including greater scrotal temperatures (Moya et al, 2014), and cause acute and chronic pain lasting for >42 days (Molony et al, 1995). In the current study, the prolonged stress associated with small band castration at an early age may be why herds that used this technique had a greater incidence of PCD and mortality in the first 7 days of life compared with those that did not.…”

Section: Colostrum Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Calf management practices and associations with herd-level morbidity and mortality on beef cow-calf operations

Murray

Fick

Pajor

et al. 2016

Animal

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The objective of this study was to investigate calf management practices on beef cow-calf operations and determine associations with herd-level morbidity and mortality of pre-weaned calves. A 40-question survey about management practices, morbidity and mortality was administered to cow-calf producers by distributing paper surveys and by circulating an online link through various media. A total of 267 producers completed the survey. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and multivariable linear regression models. Average herd-level treatment risk for pre-weaning calf diarrhea (PCD) and bovine respiratory disease (BRD) were 4.9% and 3.0%, respectively. Average herd-level mortality within the first 24 h of life (stillbirth), from 1 to 7 days and 7 days to weaning were 2.3%, 1.1%, and 1.4%, respectively. Operations that never intervened at parturition had 4.7% higher PCD than those that occasionally did. On operations using small elastrator bands for castration, PCD was 1.9% higher than those using other methods. For every increase of 100 cows in herd size, BRD decreased by 1.1%. The association between BRD and PCD varied by when calving season began. Operations that used off-farm, frozen colostrum had a 1.1% increase in stillbirths. Operations that verified a calf had suckled had 0.7% lower mortality from 1 to 7 days of age. Those that intervened when colostrum was abnormal or that used small elastrator bands for castration had 1.9% and 1.4% higher mortality during the 1 st week of life, respectively, compared with other operations. Mortality from 7 days to weaning was lower by 0.7% when calving season started in April compared with January or February and was higher by 1.0% for each additional week of calving season. Operations that intervened with colostrum consumption for assisted calvings had lower mortality from 7 days to weaning by 0.8% compared with those that did not. For every 1.0% increase in BRD, mortality from 7 days to weaning increased by 1.0%. Stillbirths and mortality from 7 days to weaning decreased non-linearly with herd size. Factors related to calving season, herd size, interventions at calving, colostrum management and castration impacted herd-level morbidity and mortality. However, effect size was generally small and causation cannot be determined with a cross-sectional study design. This study identifies several common health management practices associated with calfhood morbidity and mortality that should be further investigated to establish evidence-based management strategies to improve the health and survival of beef calves.

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“…To assess welfare status we used a combination of measures in line with our previous research on cattle castration (Petherick et al, 2014a,b) and that of other authors (e.g., Robertson et al, 1994;Molony et al, 1995;Stafford et al, 2002). Behavioural responses to pain can be difficult to interpret in isolation due to their variability both between and within individuals (Mellor et al, 2000) and so are best supported by other measures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Welfare outcomes for 3- and 6-month-old beef calves in a tropical environment castrated surgically or by applying rubber rings

Petherick

Small

Reid³

et al. 2015

Applied Animal Behaviour Science

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a b s t r a c tCastration of cattle using rubber rings is becoming increasingly popular due to the perceived ease of the procedure and greater operator safety when compared with surgical castration. Few comparative studies have investigated the effects of different castration methods and calf age on welfare outcomes, particularly in a tropical environment. Thirty Belmont Red (a tropically adapted breed), 3-month-old (liveweight 71-119 kg) and 30, 6-month-old (liveweight 141-189 kg) calves were assigned to a two age × three castration (surgical, ring and sham) treatment factorial study (Surg3, Surg6, Ring3, Ring6, Sham3 and Sham6, n = 10 for each treatment group). Welfare outcomes were assessed post-castration using: behaviour for 2 weeks; blood parameters (cortisol and haptoglobin concentrations) to 4 weeks; wound healing to 5 weeks; and liveweights to 6 weeks. More Surg calves struggled during castration compared with Sham and Ring (P < 0.05, 90 ± 7% vs. 20 ± 9% and 24 ± 10%) and performed more struggles (1.9 ± 0.2, 1.1 ± 0.3 and 1.1 ± 0.3 for Surg, Sham and Ring, respectively), suggesting that surgical castration caused most pain during performance of the procedure. A significant (P < 0.05) time × castration method × age interaction for plasma cortisol revealed that concentrations decreased most rapidly in Sham; the Ring6 calves failed to show reduced cortisol concentrations at 2 h post-castration, unlike other treatment groups. By 7 h post-castration, all treatment groups had similar concentrations. A significant (P < 0.01) interaction between time and castration method showed that haptoglobin concentrations increased slightly to 0.89 and 0.84 mg/mL for Surg and Ring, respectively over the first 3 days post-castration. Concentrations for Surg then decreased to levels similar to Sham by day 21 and, although concentrations for Ring decreased on day 7 to 0.76 mg/mL, they increased significantly on day 14 to 0.97 mg/mL before reducing to concentrations similar to the other groups (0.66 mg/mL) by day 21. Significantly (P < 0.05) more of the wounds of the 3-month compared with the 6-month calves scored as 'healed' at day 7 (74% vs. 39%), while more (P = 0.062) of the Surg than Ring scored as 'healed' at day 21 (60% vs. 29%). At day 14 there were significantly (P < 0.05) fewer healed wounds in Ring6 compared with other treatment groups (13% vs. 40-60%). Liveweight gain was significantly (P < 0.05) greater in 3-month (0.53 kg/day) than in 6-month calves (0.44 kg/day) and in Sham calves (P < 0.001, 0.54 kg/day), than in Ring (0.44 kg/day) and Surg (0.48 kg/day) calves. Overall, welfare outcomes were slightly better for Surg than Ring calves due to reduced inflammation and faster wound healing, with little difference between age groups. Crown

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Effect of different methods of castration on behaviour and plasma cortisol in calves of three ages

Cited by 154 publications

References 12 publications

Remote Noninvasive Assessment of Pain and Health Status in Cattle

Remote Noninvasive Assessment of Pain and Health Status in Cattle

Calf management practices and associations with herd-level morbidity and mortality on beef cow-calf operations

Welfare outcomes for 3- and 6-month-old beef calves in a tropical environment castrated surgically or by applying rubber rings

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