The dehorning of dairy calves: Practices and opinions of 639 farmers

Abstract

Calf dehorning is a routine husbandry practice on dairy farms that is justified by safety reasons for stockpersons and by a reduced risk of injures among herdmates. In Europe, the practice is regulated by law but little is known about the methods applied or about farmers' attitude to the practice. This study aimed to broaden the existing information on dehorning in dairy holdings by processing results of 639 farm questionnaires gathered in a traditional dairy area of northeastern Italy. Farm questionnaires were stratified according to herd size, type of housing, and productive purpose of the predominant reared breed(s). Chi-squared tests were performed to verify the significant association between a given practice or opinion and the 3 classification factors, and odd ratios were calculated. The outcomes of the study showed that dehorning was carried out on 80% of the surveyed farms, and disbudding was the method reported by all the interviewed farmers. Hot-iron cauterization was the preferred method for disbudding (91%). On average, disbudding was performed at 32 d of age and it was more likely in farms with ≥60 cows than in smaller dairy holdings (OR=7.3). The practice was carried out mainly by farm personnel, but the intervention of a veterinarian was far more likely (OR=5.98) on farms with ≤30 cows than on larger dairies. Most farmers (70%) stated that they had not received any specific training on how to perform disbudding. Fifty-two percent of the respondents reported that disbudding causes prolonged postoperative pain (≥6 h) but pain management was rare. Only 10% of the farmers used local anesthesia before cauterization, and 5% of the farmers provided calves with postoperative analgesia. Consistent with these results, farmers indicated limited willingness to pay the cost of analgesia or to call a veterinarian to perform the procedure. This low motivation of the respondents toward the adoption of practices able to reduce pain related to disbudding might arise from their insufficient knowledge on long-term negative effects of early painful experiences on behavior and handling of dairy heifers. Farmers in favor of keeping horned cows were asked about the reasons for not carrying out dehorning. Aesthetic motivations (54% of respondents) and lack of time (24%) were the main reasons cited. Moreover, a large majority of these respondents (74%) reported no difficulty in handling horned cattle.

Perceptions and practices of Finnish dairy producers on disbudding pain in calves

“…The 11-point Likert-scale for evaluating calf pain during disbudding without any pain medication was further divided into 3 classes to describe respondents' overall perceptions and to help make comparisons with other similar studies (Hoe and Ruegg, 2006;Gottardo et al, 2011): mild pain 0-3, moderate pain 4-7, and severe pain 8-10.…”

“…In Italy, producers reported that 10% of their disbudded calves received local anesthetics, 4% received a sedative, and 5% received analgesics before disbudding, and the majority of respondents were not willing to pay for veterinary services to treat disbudding-related pain (Gottardo et al, 2011). In Canada, use of sedatives or local anesthetics before disbudding was reported for 45% of herds, but apparently no analgesics were used (Vasseur et al, 2010).…”

“…Because the use of pain alleviation before disbudding is not common (Fulwider et al, 2008;Vasseur et al, 2010;Gottardo et al, 2011) and producers are reported to be unwilling to pay for pain alleviation (Gottardo et al, 2011), more information about factors affecting a producer's choice in using pain alleviation is needed. In Finland, as in other Nordic countries, the use of veterinary drugs is highly restricted and legally controlled (Finlex, 1997); thus, motivation of the producer to use pain alleviation is especially important because use of sedatives, local anesthetics, and analgesic drugs requires veterinary intervention, incurring extra costs to the producer.…”

<b>Efeitos da fototerapia no processo de cicatrização de queimaduras em bezerros</b>

“…Os métodos mais empregados para descorna são: a cauterização pelo calor e a cauterização química por meio da aplicação de pasta cáustica. A escolha do método depende em grande parte da experiência prévia e da preferência do operador (GRONDAHL-NIELSON et al, 1999;VICKERS et al, 2005;GOTTARDO et al, 2011;). Porém um estudo (COZZI, 2015) mostrou que a técnica mais utilizada dentre os países membros na União Européia é a descorna em bezerros utilizando o ferro quente, o que torna esta prática um dos principais fatores da ocorrência de queimaduras nesses animais.…”

“…Nas lesões de segundo grau a cicatrização ocorre em média entre 14 e 21 dias sem produção emprego de pasta cáustica (VICKERS et al, 2005;BROOM, 2008;STILWELL et al, 2009), a cauterização pelo calor utilizando ferro quente (GRAFF; SENN, 1999;GRONDAHL-NIELSON et al, 1999;FAULKNER;WEARY, 2000;VICKERS et al, 2005;DOHERTY et al, 2007;STILWELL et al, 2010;STILWELL et al, 2012;HENRICH et al, 2013;BATES et al, 2015;CARAY et al, 2015), a cauterização pelo frio -crio cirurgia (BENGTSSON et al, 1996) e a excisão do broto germinativo utilizando uma guilhotina ("scoop disbudding") (ESPINOZA et al, 2013;FRACCARO et al, 2013). Dentre todas estas técnicas a que mais se destacada por estar inserida no manejo rotineiro das propriedades leiteiras é cauterização pelo calor utilizando o ferro quente, tornando-se, portanto, um dos principais fatores da ocorrência de queimaduras em bezerros (GRONDAHL-NIELSON et al, 1999;GOTTARDO et al, 2011;VICKERS et al, 2005;COZZI et al, 2015).…”