Effects of local anaesthesia or local anaesthesia plus a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug on the acute cortisol response of calves to five different methods of castration

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Abstract

The cortisol response of calves to different methods of castration (ring, band, surgical, clamp) with or without local anaesthetic, or local anaesthetic plus a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug were recorded. All methods of castration caused a significant cortisol response and by inference pain and distress. Band castration caused a greater cortisol response than ring castration but the responses were eliminated by local anaesthetic. The cortisol response to surgical castration, by traction on the spermatic cords or by cutting across them with an emasculator, was not diminished by local anaesthetic but when ketoprofen was given with local anaesthetic the cortisol response was eliminated. Local anaesthetic did reduce the behavioural response to cutting the scrotum and handling the testes. Clamp castration caused the smallest cortisol response which was reduced or eliminated by local anaesthetic or local anesthetic plus ketoprofen respectively, but this method of castration was not always successful.

Section snippets

Animals

A total of 190 spring born Friesian cross calves reared on two farms in the Manawatu district of New Zealand were used in the study. They were 2–4 months of age and had a mean weight (± standard error mean) of 95.5±0.97 kg (range 68–132 kg). The trial took place over 5 days.

The calves were weighed the afternoon before each study day and then released into a small paddock close to the study shed. They were brought back into the shed at 6 a.m. the following morning and were divided into groups of

Results

There were no major difficulties over the 5 days of the study on the two farms. The calves were easy to handle and repeat blood sampling seemed to have little effect on their behaviour, although many of the calves lay down later in the day. A few calves bled for several hours after surgical castration but they did not appear to weaken as a result.

The pre-treatment cortisol concentrations are shown in Table 1. There were no significant between-group differences. There was a significant

Discussion

This study of the plasma cortisol responses and, by inference, the pain and distress caused in calves castrated by different methods (ring, band, “surgery pull,” “surgery cut” and clamp) provided the following new information. First, all five methods caused an immediate and significant rise in plasma cortisol concentration, a rise that was significantly greater than that of control calves, indicating that each procedure is acutely painful and distressing. Second, the patterns of the cortisol

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  • Cited by (0)

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