Pre-test habituation improves the reliability of a handheld test of mechanical nociceptive threshold in dairy cows

Abstract

Mechanical nociceptive threshold (MNT) testing has been used to investigate aspects of painful states in bovine claws. We investigated a handheld tool, where the applied stimulation force was monitored continuously relative to a pre-encoded based target force. The effect on MNT of two pre-testing habituation procedures was performed in two different experiments comprising a total of 88 sound Holsteins dairy cows kept either inside or outside their home environment. MNT testing was performed using five consecutive mechanical nociceptive stimulations per cow per test at a fixed pre-encoded target rate of 2.1 N/s. The habituation procedure performed in dairy cows kept in their home environment led to lowered intra-individual coefficient of variation of MNT (P < 0.001), increased MNT (P < 0.001) and decreased the discrepancy between applied and target force during stimulations (P < 0.001). Pre-test habituation improved the reliability of the handheld tool when used in dairy cows kept in their home environment. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Keywords

Mechanical nociceptive threshold; Dairy cows; Pain; Habituation

Published in

Research in Veterinary Science
2015, volume: 102, pages: 189-195
Publisher: Elsevier

SLU Authors

• Haubro Andersen, Pia

  • Department of Clinical Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Other Veterinary Science

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rvsc.2015.07.020

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/68758