Early detection of lameness in heifers with hairy heel warts using a pressure plate
Lameness is an indicator of pain and suffering, which has substantial animal welfare and economic impact on the dairy industry. Subjective locomotion scoring is unreliable for detecting mild cases of lameness in dairy herds. Undetected lameness can progress to a more serious and painful state with unfavourable prognosis. The aim of this study was to […]
Assessing pain in animals putting research into practice
Our ability to assess pain in animals in clinical situations is slowly developing, but remains very limited. In order to develop appropriate pain scoring schemes, numerous practical problems need to be overcome. In addition, we need to appraise realistically our current poor state of knowledge. Development of new scoring systems must be coupled with the […]
Assessing Pain in Animals
Assessing the experience of pain in animals is a difficult task, yet one that is important in animal welfare research. Some approaches to pain assessment in animals are reviewed here. General qualities of pain scales and specific parameters suitable for clinical and experimental pain assessments are discussed. It is argued that pain assessment will progress […]
Human-animal relationships in the Norwegian dairy goat industry: assessment of pain and provision of veterinary treatment (Part II)
Stockpeoples’ ability to recognise pain in their livestock, and to respond appropriately, is of utmost importance for animal welfare. Assessment of pain is complex, and attitudes and empathy are thought to play a role in peoples’ responses to the sight of pain. In a separate paper we investigated the dimensionality of Norwegian dairy goat stockpeoples’ […]
Identifying and preventing pain in animals
Animals are routinely subjected to painful procedures, such as tail docking for puppies, castration for piglets, dehorning for dairy calves, and surgery for laboratory rats. Disease and injury, such as tumours in mice and sole ulcers on the feet of dairy cows, may also cause pain. In this paper we describe some of the ways […]
Body weight affects behavioural indication of thermal nociceptive threshold in adult domestic cats (Felis catus)
Carbon dioxide (CO2) thermal lasers have previously been validated for the assessment of nociception in cats. This experiment sought to assess the potential impact of factors associated with age, sex, body weight and sterilisation upon nociceptive threshold as measured by latency to display a behavioural response. Cats (N = 113) were exposed to a CO2 […]
Use of spontaneous behaviour measures to assess pain in laboratory rats and mice: How are we progressing?
The understanding and recognition of pain in laboratory rats and mice has advanced considerably in recent times. However, there is evidence that despite these advances, analgesics are still relatively underutilised in these species. One possible contributing influence to this is the difficulty in assessing pain reliably and objectively in these prey species. This review presents […]