Pain mitigation after band castration of beef calves and its effects on performance, behavior, Escherichia coli, and salivary cortisol1

Abstract

Eighty-nine steer and bull calves (210 +/- 20 d of age) were randomly assigned to a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement of treatments to study the effect of sham or band castration (CAST) with or without pain medication (MED) on performance, behavior, cortisol, and Escherichia coli shedding. Steers (serving as controls; C) were previously castrated at 34 +/- 10 d of age, whereas bulls (B) remained intact until band application on d 20 of the experiment. One-half of the calves in each group received pain medication (M; xylazine epidural and intravenous flunixin meglumine) or saline (NM) solutions at 0.5 h before castration. Feed intake, ADG, and feeding behavior were measured over a 3-wk period before (used as covariates) and a 6-wk period after castration. Fecal and saliva samples were collected from 32 calves for E. coli enumeration at -7 (covariate), 2, 5, and 7 d, and for cortisol concentration at -0.5 (covariate), 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 24, 48, 168, and 336 h relative to castration, respectively. Lying behavior was measured in the home pen and step length at exit from the chute. There were no significant CAST x MED interactions on growth rate or feed intake. Overall ADG was less in B compared with C (P < 0.001), but feed intake was less during wk 4 only (P = 0.01). On average, M had less intake (P = 0.02) and eating rate (P = 0.04) than NM calves. The BM had less fecal E. coli counts than CM (P = 0.05) and castrated and nonmedicated calves (P = 0.08). Salivary cortisol was less in BM compared with the rest of treatments at 1 and 2 h after banding (P <or= 0.05). Castration reduced time spent lying (P = 0.06) and step length (P = 0.01) until d 28 after banding, whereas M reduced lying and step length on day of banding only (P <or= 0.06). Significant CAST x MED interactions were observed for frequency of visits to feeders and meal size, length, and frequency (P < 0.05) independent of the time after castration. This was due to greater values in the noncastrated and non-pain-medicated group compared with the rest, except for reduced meal frequency, indicating that pain medication and castration both affected feeding behavior. The medication protocol used in the present study eliminated the acute cortisol surge, which may be linked to reduced fecal E. coli counts observed during wk 1 after banding. However, feed intake, growth, and behavior suggested that pain was greatest during wk 3 and 4 after band application, which highlights the need for chronic pain mitigation strategies.

A comparison of welfare outcomes for weaner and mature Bos indicus bulls surgically or tension band castrated with or without analgesia: 2. Responses related to stress, health and productivity

“…In the mature bulls, however, cortisol concentrations were significantly greater in the tension-banded than surgically castrated bulls at weeks 2-4 post-castration. Previous tension banding castration studies did not find elevated cortisol concentrations in tension-banded cattle at 2 weeks post-castration (Fisher et al, 2001;Gonzalez et al, 2010) and no studies on tension banding, other than the current work, appear to have examined cortisol concentrations beyond 2 weeks post-castration. The elevated cortisol concentrations found in the current study coincided with elevated haptoglobin concentrations.…”

“…Further, although this could not be tested statistically because separate experiments were conducted for the two age cohorts, we predicted greater pain, stress, tissue damage and blood loss in the mature than weaner bulls due to their greater size. We were unsure of the likely longer-term impacts of castration methods on cortisol responses, although there is some behavioural evidence of chronic pain in tension-banded calves (Gonzalez et al, 2010) which would suggest that cortisol concentrations may be elevated for some weeks post-tension banding.…”

“…In addition, liveweight changes are also welfare indicators because states such as pain and stress may reduce feeding behaviour e.g., due to a reluctance of cattle to walk (e.g. see Gonzalez et al, 2010), or alter energy partitioning for anabolism and catabolism (Elsasser et al, 2000). We anticipated no difference between the two castration methods given that previous studies comparing tension banding and other castration methods (mainly surgical and burdizzo) have produced mostly consistent findings of no differences in liveweight or average daily gains in bulls (e.g.…”

Remote Noninvasive Assessment of Pain and Health Status in Cattle

“…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.…”

“…24 Researchers evaluating residual feed intake (RFI) found distinct differences in feeding behaviors among high and low RFI calves using both the GrowSafe and Insentec monitoring systems. 60,61 Since feed inputs represent one of the largest costs in producing beef, monitoring behaviors that may identify calves with less than ideal feed efficiencies may be beneficial.…”