Quantification of the pain and distress responses to castration in young lambs

Pain and distress following castration were assessed in lambs using three indicators: behaviour, plasma cortisol and mechanical nociceptive thresholds. Three castration methods: rubber ring (RR), combined ring and Burdizzo clamp (CM) and surgery (SU) were compared. The effects of castration followin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Research in veterinary science 1999-04, Vol.66 (2), p.107-118
Main Authors: THORNTON, P.D, WATERMAN-PEARSON, A.E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anesthesia, General
Anesthetics, Local
Animals
Hydrocortisone - blood
Male
Orchiectomy - methods
Orchiectomy - psychology
Orchiectomy - veterinary
Pain - etiology
Pain - veterinary
Scrotum
Sheep
Sheep Diseases - etiology
Sheep Diseases - psychology
Stress, Psychological
Time Factors
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Summary:Pain and distress following castration were assessed in lambs using three indicators: behaviour, plasma cortisol and mechanical nociceptive thresholds. Three castration methods: rubber ring (RR), combined ring and Burdizzo clamp (CM) and surgery (SU) were compared. The effects of castration following local anaesthetic pre-treatment (LA) and castration performed under general anaesthetic (GA) were compared to castration performed with no anaesthetic. This gave a 4 × 3 × 3 block design i.e. 36 experimental treatments. Six lambs were allocated to each treatment i.e. 216 lambs were used in all.SUproduced the greatest response, followed byRRthenCMcastration.LAabolished the responses toRRandCMcastration but had no effect on the response toSUcastration.GAdid not reduce the responses toRRandSUbut abolished the rise in mechanical nociceptive thresholds and markedly attenuated active pain behaviours in lambsCMcastrated without anaesthesia. This suggests that the clamping procedure itself rather than post-castration pain and distress is responsible for the rise in nociceptive thresholds and active pain behaviours inCMcastrated lambs.
ISSN:0034-5288
1532-2661
DOI:10.1053/rvsc.1998.0252