Pain Assessment in Cattle during Castration Using Facial Expressions as a Promising Tool

Abstract

Pain is a significant welfare issue in farm animals including cattle, impacting their wellbeing and normal behaviors. The frequent occurrence of pain in cattle is due to husbandry procedures, injuries, and diseases. Cattle, as a prey species, avoid expressing pain which makes pain identification a challenging issue. Rapid pain recognition is crucial to its effective treatment. Several pain assessment tools have been developed, and some of them rely on observing alterations in animal behaviors such as activity, locomotion, feeding, play, and grooming. Moreover, changes in physiological parameters including blood biomarkers and heart rate have been used as indicators of pain. Furthermore, grimace scales, which rely on evaluating facial expressions of animals, have been developed and proven to be accurate pain assessment tool in multiple species. To reliably identify pain in cattle, it is preferred to employ a combination of diagnostic methods, as no single approach can stand alone in assessing pain accurately. Mitigation strategies become imperative when pain is anticipated during husbandry procedures such as castration. Prompt application of treatment strategies is paramount to avoid transition of acute to chronic pain which is hard to be treated. © The Author 2024