1
Animal behavior provides insight into best practice: Detecting and mitigating BRD
sickness and disbudding pain
Cassandra Tucker
Health &biologicalfunction (bodies)
Naturalness(natures)
Feelings(minds)
2
How does BRD affect animal welfare? What insights can behavior provide?
Rachel Toaff-Rosenstein (PhD student, DVM)
Laurel Gershwin (UC Davis vet school, DVM)
Adroaldo Zanella (SAC, DVM)
Cassandra Tucker (UC Davis Animal Science)
Bovine Respiratory Disease
• Largest cause of mortality and morbidity for cattle
• Poor sensitivity and specificity of detection
Goals:
• Improve understanding sickness response
• Identify promising ways to improve detection & evaluate treatment
3
NSAID
• In US feedlots, 40% treat with combination NSAID + antibiotic
• Reduce lung lesions & increases weight gain, but evidence is mixed
• Could be included to improve welfare?
• Meloxicam used because of relatively long half life (26-28 h in cattle)
Characterization of behavioral and physiological changes associated with BRD
Challenge model: BRSV + H. somni
52 Angus-cross steers; average weight, 300 kgToday: subset n=20 where analysis is complete
4
June to September 2011; 3 replicates
Timeline
day -7
move into individual pens
day 13
return to herd; monitored for 1 additional week
infect with BRSVday 0
day 5
infect with H. somni
treatment
day 8
4 treatments (13 steers/each):BRDBRD+meloxicamHealthyHealthy+meloxicam
5
Daily clinical exam
Cytokines, pharmacokinetics, prostaglandins
6
Daily feed intake
0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Dry
mat
ter
inta
ke %
BW
Day relative to viral infection
BRD
Healthy
** ** ** ** ****
* ** ****
BRD steers reduce feed intake
Growsafe
• 1 bin/8 animals
• $72,000USD/bin
7
24-h monitoring of rectal temperature
39.0
39.5
40.0
40.5
41.0
41.5
42.0
42.5
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Max
rec
tal t
emp
erat
ure
, °C
Day relative to viral challenge
Healthy
BRD
**** ** **
Steers show febrile response to BRD
24-h monitoring of lying behavior
8
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Lyi
ng
tim
e, h
/d
Day relative to viral challenge
Healthy
BRD
* *
Small changes in lying time in response to BRD; biologically significant?
Mechanical nociceptive threshold
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
-2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
No
cice
pti
ve t
hre
sho
ld,
PS
I
Day relative to viral challenge
Healthy
BRD
*
BRD steers more sensitive
9
Grooming behavior
0.00
0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
0.25
0.30
-2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Pro
po
rtio
n o
f o
bse
rved
in
terv
als
wit
h
bru
sh
Day relative to viral challenge
BRD
Healthy
BRD steers groom less
10
Response Promising? Practical?
Feed intake $$$
Rectal temp
Lying behavior
Painthreshold
Grooming behavior
???
Next: Changes in grooming behavior associated with BRD
• Develop brush that detects grooming with RFID (lower cost)
• Test specificity & sensitivity with challenge model
• Eventually, will use this to evaluate effect of a NSAID with naturally occurring BRD
11
How does disbudding affect animal welfare? What insights can behavior provide?
Erin Mintline, Mairi Stewart, Gwyn Verkerk, Andrea Rogers, Joe Stookey,
Jim Webster, Cassandra Tucker
Canadian 2009 Dairy Code of Practice“Pain control must be used
when dehorning or disbudding.”
Goals:
• Improve understanding longer-term pain associated with disbudding
• Identify promising ways to improve & evaluate treatment
• Emphasis on novel approaches
12
illness
hunger
pain
play
Lidocaine (LA) Meloxicam (NSAID)
13
LA
NSAID
DB
3 h
Play test
24 h
playDB
DB + LA
control
LA + NSAID
DB + LA + NSAID
LAplay?
14
Calves disbudded without NSAID bucked less
#/10
min
-2
0
2
4
6
8
10
Control DB+LA+NSAID DB
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Control DB+LA+NSAID DB
Calves disbudded without NSAID ran less
sec/
10 m
in
15
Calves given LA bucked less
#/10
min
-2
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Control DB+LA LA
Calves given LA bucked less, but not if given NSAID
#/10
min
-2
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Control DB+LA LA LA+NSAID
Play behavior reduced at 3 h, but not at 24 h
• Meloxicam still active
• Repeated testing might be a problem?
• Unclear how pain changes in hours and days after procedure
16
17
Disbudding wounds sensitive up to 75 h
No overall effect of pain relief
Meloxicam attenuates responsewhen test with 1-2 kg pressureHeinrich et al., 2010
Next: Wound healing and spontaneous play
• Spontaneous play in home pen, rather than in separate test situation
• Wound sensitivity with more pressure, evaluate until healed
• Look at repeated dosing of NSAID after disbudding
• Eventually, will better understand nature of longer-term pain associated with disbudding
18
Health &biologicalfunction (bodies)
Naturalness(natures)
Feelings(minds)
Meloxicam (pain relief)nociceptive threshold
body temperature
clinical signs
grooming behavior
lying behaviorfeed intake
cytokines play behavior
wound sensitivity
Take home message
• Combining disciplines (e.g. behavior & physiology) provides insight into animal welfare
• These results inform better practices
Questions?
19
