Vets and farmers have different views on pain
Whether you are a farmer or a veterinarian makes a difference when it comes to assessing the level of pain suffered by cows and how it should be managed. This is the result of a new study at Aarhus University.
How much does it hurt when a cow has mastitis or a hoof disorder? This is difficult for us humans to assess with any degree of certainty and depends very much on who is doing the assessing. A survey undertaken by scientists at Aarhus University shows that farmers and vets assess the degree of pain suffered by cows differently and they also differ in the extent to which they believe the pain should be relieved by drugs.
The scientists from Aarhus University received responses from 137 veterinarians and 189 farmers to a number of questions on pain and its management. In the questionnaire the farmers and vets were asked how much pain they believed certain diseases would cause the cows. The degree of pain was scored on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 meant no pain and 10 much pain.
The vets and farmers were asked to give their opinion for 10 different diseases, including mastitis, displaced abomasum, digital dermatitis, metritis and pelvic fracture. The two groups generally agreed on which diseases were most painful. They also agreed on the need to use painkillers.
However, they had different perceptions of how much pain the individual conditions caused and how much pain relief was needed. Farmers generally scored diseases as more painful than the vets did, but at the same time farmers were less in favour of using analgesics for cows.
- It is good to see that both farmers and vets take pain in cows seriously. Our results also show how important good communication between the farmer and the vet is in order to ensure that sick animals are treated in the most appropriate manner, says senior scientist Peter T. Thomsen from Aarhus University.
The study also showed that even for professionally qualified and experienced people there is considerable variation in their assessment of how pain affects cows.
- To this end, the development of systematic scales for grading pain that can be used for the most common cattle diseases would be a valuable tool and give animal welfare a boost through better pain relief, says senior scientist Mette S. Herskin.
Further information: Senior scientist Peter T. Thomsen, telephone: +45 8715 7834, e-mail: PeterT.Thomsen@agrsci.dk or senior scientist Mette S. Herskin, telephone: +45 8715 7945, mobile: +45 5050 2969, e-mail: MetteS.Herskin@agrsci.dk, both from the Department of Animal Science