The role of pain management in sustainable dairy and beef production

Cattle raised for dairy and beef production often experience pain associated with disease conditions and routine husbandry procedures. Assessing pain in cattle can be challenging, with wide variation in attitudes to pain and subsequent use of analgesics. Over the past decade, increasing societal concern for cattle welfare has placed growing pressure on the dairy and beef industries in Europe.

Pain in cattle: a common occurrence, although sometimes difficult to identify and manage

Pain is a protective biological mechanism that alerts to the onset of potential tissue damage, inducing both sensory and emotional experiences that significantly affect animal welfare¹. Over the past two decades, pain in cattle has been thoroughly studied, leading to numerous recommendations and the development of pain scoring tools.

However, pain in cattle has specific characteristics that call for the development of a targeted evidence-based approach to pain detection. This approach must consider the unique physiology, behavioural patterns, and evolutionary history of cattle by establishing validated bovine-specific pain indicators². Cattle can be quite stoic, making pain difficult to identify and quantify. This hinders the implementation of effective pain management protocols^3,4.

In cattle, pain usually results from infectious diseases, injuries or lameness, but it can also be caused by humans, especially during routine husbandry procedures or after surgery⁵. Mastitis, lameness, calving (including caesarean section and dystocia), and metritis are reported as the main painful conditions in dairy cows⁶.

Routine procedures such as disbudding and dehorning are also considered painful.

Assessing pain in cattle: a challenging task for vets and farmers

Pain assessment is the essential first step. Behavioural changes and variations in physiological responses can be signs of pain in cattle⁷. Behavioural changes may include alterations in cattle’s spontaneous behaviour in their living area^8,9, response to palpation of painful areas⁹, hoof-lifting, and absence of feeding and ruminating¹⁰. Both increased and/or reduced daily lying time can be signs of pain in cattle, making the task of properly recognising pain in cattle even more challenging⁶. 

Veterinarians tend to perceive the cost of NSAID treatment more of a barrier than farmers, suggesting that NSAIDs could be more readily offered¹². Most farmers obtain their knowledge of pain recognition and treatment from their personal experience (61%). Most veterinarians tend to use both their personal experience and continuing education to identify and mitigate pain in cattle⁵. 

As attitudes and approaches towards pain scores and pain management in farm animals vary from person to person, pain perception can be affected, and so can be the subsequent use of analgesics.

According to research, there are opportunities for veterinarians to engage more with farmers on pain management in cattle, suggesting the critical role of veterinarians in improving cattle welfare⁵.

Educating dairy farmers on the benefits of analgesia, especially for conditions and procedures where NSAIDs use is low compared to pain scores (for instance Burdizzo castration in calves, white line separation and abscesses, mastitis with clots in milk, calving with no assistance), could be beneficial to further improve pain management and cattle welfare on farms¹².

This could also have an impact on the profitability of farms and the well-being of farmers, as pain mitigation would enable better productivity and therefore better production outcomes.