Medicated Meloxicam Pellets Reduce Some Indicators of Pain in Disbudded Dairy Calves

TL;DR

Medicated meloxicam pellets provided longer-lasting pain relief for disbudded calves compared to injections, reducing inflammation and improving behavior over a 7-day period.

Contribution

A novel grain-based meloxicam pellet treatment was tested for prolonged pain relief in disbudded calves.

Findings

Medicated pellets reduced horn site inflammation over 7 days compared to injections.

Calves on pellets showed fewer pain-specific behaviors and more positive social behaviors.

Prolonged meloxicam administration via pellets improved calf welfare outcomes.

Abstract

Disbudding is the removal of a calf’s horn buds before they fuse to the skull, inducing inflammation at the horn sites and associated pain and discomfort that is detrimental to calf welfare. Current conventional practice includes the administration of a meloxicam injection to ease inflammation. However, this treatment only lasts up to 44 h following administration. The pain and discomfort associated with disbudding is suggested to last for up to two weeks. Recognising the need for longer-lasting pain relief, this experiment tested a novel treatment whereby grain-based pellets formulated with meloxicam were fed to disbudded calves over a 7-day period. In comparison to a conventional meloxicam injection, the medicated meloxicam pellet treatment resulted in less inflammation across the 7-day feeding period. Calves treated with the medicated pellets also exhibited less pain-specific behaviours and more positive social-specific behaviours during and beyond the feeding period. Having concluded the beneficial value of this treatment, further work will focus on reproducing results and optimising treatment practicality.

Disbudding is a husbandry practice that causes pain and discomfort to calves. As a prominent welfare concern, it is now standard practice for calves to be given analgesic treatment such as a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) injection. Meloxicam is a commonly used NSAID as it provides pain relief for up to 44 h following disbudding. However, since symptoms can persist for up to two weeks, it was hypothesised that more prolonged analgesic treatment would promote better welfare outcomes than the conventional injection. This study tested a novel treatment whereby disbudded calves were fed grain-based pellets medicated with meloxicam over a 7-day period. Lower levels of horn site inflammation were observed for the pellet treatment across the 7-day feeding period in comparison to the conventional injection. The pellet treatment calves also exhibited less pain-specific and more positive social-specific behaviours during and beyond the feeding period. Together, these results suggest that lower levels of inflammation enacted by prolonged meloxicam administration have an active role in reducing pain and maintaining the affectivity of disbudded calves. With the goal of establishing sustained disbudding treatment as a new industry standard, future research will focus on larger-scale results reproducibility and maximising treatment practicality.

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