Assessment of potential neuropathic changes in cattle after cautery disbudding.

Vidondo, Beatriz; Stettler, Svenja Anita; Stojiljkovic, Ana; Mogel, Helga Maria; Gaschen, Véronique; Spadavecchia, Claudia; Casoni, Daniela; Stoffel, Michael Hubert (2019). Assessment of potential neuropathic changes in cattle after cautery disbudding. Research in veterinary science, 126, pp. 9-16. Association for Veterinary Teaching and Research Work 10.1016/j.rvsc.2019.08.003

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Disbudding of calves is a standard husbandry procedure to reduce the risk of injuries to other cattle and to workers. Whereas acute pain resulting from disbudding has been studied extensively, little is known about chronic pain as a potential long-term consequence. The goal of the present study was to investigate possible morphological changes in the cornual nerve as a function of disbudding. Samples were collected from 17 randomly selected bulls and from 21 calves from a prospective clinical study. Among the calves, 13 were disbudded and 8 were sham-disbudded. Out of the disbudded calves, 4 showed signs of chronic pain. In all the animals, the infraorbital nerve was used as a methodological check. Morphological analysis included measuring minimal diameters of the axons present in both the cornual and infraorbital nerves. Sympathetic fibers were identified as based on the presence of Tyroxine hydroxylase (TH). TH-negative fibers were considered afferents. Trigeminal ganglia from the calves were immunostained for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and Activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3). R. cornualis and N. infraorbitalis differed in terms of axon diameters and proportion of TH-positive fibers. Weak evidence (p > .091) of a difference in axon diameters between control and disbudded calves was found in R. cornualis, but the proportion of TH-positive fibers was alike in both groups. Average glial envelope and the percentages of ATF3-positive neurons revealed no difference between calves with and without signs of pain. Thus, available evidence is insufficient to support neuropathic changes as a result of disbudding in calves.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine (DKV) > DKV - Anaesthesiology
04 Faculty of Medicine > Pre-clinic Human Medicine > BioMedical Research (DBMR)
05 Veterinary Medicine > Research Foci > NeuroCenter
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Research and Veterinary Public Health (DCR-VPH) > Veterinary Anatomy
09 Interdisciplinary Units > Microscopy Imaging Center (MIC)

UniBE Contributor:

Vidondo Curras, Beatriz Teresa, Stettler, Svenja Anita, Stojiljkovic, Ana, Mogel-Allemann, Helga Maria, Gaschen, Véronique, Spadavecchia, Claudia, Casoni, Daniela, Stoffel, Michael Hubert

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health
500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology
500 Science > 590 Animals (Zoology)

ISSN:

0034-5288

Publisher:

Association for Veterinary Teaching and Research Work

Language:

English

Submitter:

Vanessa Alice Blum

Date Deposited:

18 Sep 2019 11:04

Last Modified:

02 Mar 2023 23:32

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.rvsc.2019.08.003

PubMed ID:

31419617

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Calf Immunohistochemistry Nerve fiber Pain Trigeminal ganglion

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.133321

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/133321

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