Results of a consequential study about managing pain in calves at castration were presented as a research summary during the Grad Student Competition at the American Association of Bovine Practitioners Conference in Columbus, OH.
Madeline Mancke, the Kansas State (K-State) University graduate student responsible for the clinical study, presented the summary of “The Use of Lidocaine-Loaded Bands to Castrate Beef-on-Dairy Calves and its Effect on Animal Welfare and Performance” during the competition.
“We conducted a blinded, randomized controlled trial to control for all known confounders in the defined population and remove as much potential bias as possible,” Mancke says. “We chose beef-on-dairy calves because of an increase of male calves entering calf ranches and requiring castration, and therefore a welfare concern related to castration pain. Calves were housed individually to allow us to monitor them individually, including performance measures.”
Study objectives included determining differences in affective states and natural living (blood parameters, activity monitoring) and basic health and function (weight gain, feed consumption) between the Lidoband group and the control group on which conventional castration bands were used.
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“These are important variables to objectively assess animal behavior and welfare, while also looking at performance outcomes,” Mancke added. “We selected these outcomes to encompass a variety of welfare outcomes that can help producers make informed decisions about the use of castration bands and the possibility of pain mitigation by using Lidoband bands.”
Eduarda Bortoluzzi, study principal investigator and assistant professor with the Department of Anatomy and Physiology at K-State University, referenced this study in her presentation, “Innovative Approaches to Castration Pain Management.”
“We examined performance, health and behavior of 26 calves under two weeks of age,” Bortoluzzi said. “Some highlights we observed comparing animals castrated using Lidoband bands compared to standard, commercially available bands over the 42 days of the study were that the Lidoband calves gained a little more weight, so their feed conversion was a bit better. We saw a slightly higher average daily gain for the animals, especially during the first week.”
Investigators placed accelerometers on one leg of each calf to record 24/7 if they were lying or standing for the 42 days of the study. In addition to capturing lying and standing time, this allowed the capture of the calves’ bouts of lying down and staying down for one minute or longer.
“The calves were also under 24/7 video surveillance so investigators could observe any disruption of the normalcy of their behavior,” Bortoluzzi added. “We saw the calves that were castrated with the lidocaine bands had more lying bouts than calves in the control group. In the control group, we saw longer periods of standing. In addition, the Lidoband calves spent more time lying down, an indication of comfort.”
The timing of the calves lying down more is noteworthy as it took place between day 21 and day 35.
“This is when we start seeing the bands cutting through tissue, showing granulation at the banding site. It was great to see they were comfortable lying down at a time that we often say is the chronic part of the pain related to castration,” Bortoluzzi said.
She said they observed both groups of calves increased wound licks about this time, and they would look more at their flanks and stomp their feet. This coincides with day 35, generally when the tissue falls off and the wound starts healing.
Most would expect calves to lose weight after castration, but the group banded with Lidoband bands gained a little the first week after castration, while control calves lost weight during the same period. Lidoband-treated calves maintained their weight over the length of the study and finished with a slight edge over control calves.
“Certainly, we don’t want calves losing any weight,” Bortoluzzi said. “But, we know castration is painful, no matter which method you use.
“In addition to weight gain, it’s also about doing the right thing for our animals and providing some type of analgesic relief during castration because we know it’s painful. I would use it to decrease their stress during this period. We now have a type of analgesia that was not available before. We also observed calves’ positive behaviors at 21 to 35 days post-application.”
Mancke notes the weight gain and its context within the study.
“Though we only saw significant performance differences between the treatment groups weekly compared to an overall difference, there were notable behavior differences between the two treatment groups around the time of wound granulation,” she added. “Further research is warranted on a larger population of calves. Lidoband allows producers to band their calves with ease while offering a local anesthesia to address the acute and chronic pain that comes with banding.”—
