The success of the animal in coping with challenges, and in harnessing opportunities to thrive, is central to its welfare. Functional capacity describes the capacity of molecules, cells, organs, body systems, the whole animal, and its community to buffer against the impacts of environmental perturbations. This buffering capacity determines the ability of the animal to maintain or regain functions in the face of environmental perturbations, which is recognised as resilience. The accuracy of physiological regulation and the maintenance of homeostatic balance underwrite the dynamic stability of outcomes such as biorhythms, feed intake, growth, milk yield, and egg production justifying their assessment as indicators of resilience. This narrative review examines the influence of environmental enrichments, especially during developmental stages in young animals, in building functional capacity and in its subsequent expression as resilience. Experience of enriched environments can build skills and competencies across multiple functional domains including but not limited to behaviour, immunity, and metabolism thereby increasing functional capacity and facilitating resilience within the context of challenges such as husbandry practices, social change, and infection. A quantitative method for measuring the distributed property of functional capacity may improve its assessment. Methods for analysing embedded energy (emergy) in ecosystems may have utility for this goal. We suggest functional capacity provides the common thread that links environmental enrichments with an ability to express resilience and may provide a novel and useful framework for measuring and reporting resilience. We conclude that the development of functional capacity and its subsequent expression as resilience is an aspect of positive animal welfare. The emergence of resilience from system dynamics highlights a need to shift from the study of physical and mental states to the study of physical and mental dynamics to describe the positive dimension of animal welfare.

Context Feedlot entry can be a period of stress for cattle due to transportation, altered diets and other influences. Stress can suppress host defence mechanisms. Innate immune stimulants, such as mycobacterial cell-wall fractions, attract attention for the primary objective of enhancing non-specific immune resistance of cattle against microbial diseases during periods of stress-induced susceptibility. These stimulants are also recognised for their capacity to modify responses of the adaptive immune system to vaccines. Aims This study aims to evaluate the potential for mycobacterial cell-wall fractions in Amplimune® to modify adaptive immune responses to the commercial vaccines Rhinogard® (modified live bovine alphaherpesvirus-1 (BoHV-1)) and Bovilis MH + IBR® (inactivated Mannheimia haemolytica and BoHV-1) in yearling cattle during simulated feedlot induction. Methods Fifty-four mixed-sex Angus yearling cattle were transported for 6 h on Day −1 and on Day 0. The cattle were assigned to the following six treatment groups (n = 9/group): Rhinogard plus 2 mL Amplimune, Rhinogard plus 5 mL Amplimune, Bovilis MH + IBR plus 2 mL Amplimune, Bovilis MH + IBR plus 5 mL Amplimune, Rhinogard plus 5 mL saline, and Bovilis MH + IBR plus 5 mL saline. Blood and nasal secretions were sampled at various time points following treatment and antigen-specific antibody (immunoglobulin G) responses to components of the vaccines were assessed. Interferon-γ production by peripheral blood mononuclear cells in response to BoHV-1, Concanavalin A or media only were assessed. Key results No adverse clinical reactions were observed to administration of Amplimune and vaccines. A systemic antibody response to vaccination was observed for the Bovilis MH + IBR vaccine. Vaccine-specific antibody and cytokine responses were not modified by Amplimune. Conclusions Amplimune can be administered at the same time as Rhinogard or Bovilis MH + IBR vaccines, without undesirable effects on specific immune responses to vaccination. Implications The primary interest in using Amplimune is to potentiate non-specific immune defences as an alternative to antibiotics for the prevention and/or treatment of microbial diseases such as bovine respiratory disease in production animals. In view of its adjuvant-like activities, administration of Amplimune might also confer beneficial or detrimental effects on antigen-specific responses of the adaptive immune system to contemporaneous vaccination.

Background Innate immune stimulants, including mycobacterium cell wall fractions (MCWF), offer an alternative control option to prevent and treat disease in livestock, by appropriately augmenting the innate immune response. However, the functional response to mycobacterium cell wall fractions in cattle is not well defined. In this study we report the transcriptomic response of bovine peripheral blood mononuclear cells to MCWF in the product Amplimune®. Methods Amplimune-induced transcriptomic changes in bovine peripheral blood mononuclear cells were determined following an initial pilot study and a later time course experiment. These cells were cultured in vitro for 24 h. In the pilot experiment, cells were stimulated with 0, 2, 5, 12.5 or 31.25 µg/mL Amplimune. In the time course experiment, cells were stimulated with 0 or 31.25 µg/mL Amplimune. In both experiments the total RNA was extracted at 0 h, 6 h and 24 h following stimulation. Ribosomal RNA depleted samples were sequenced, and data analysed to determine differential gene expression profiles. Differential gene expression was further analysed to determine enriched biological processes and pathways and a co-expression network. Results and conclusion Amplimune induced dose- and time-dependent gene expression profile changes in bovine peripheral blood mononuclear cells, which were enriched into GO-BP regulation of signalling receptor activity, response to cytokine and inflammatory response. Enriched pathways from KEGG analysis were cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, IL17 signalling and TNF signalling pathways. Selected genes involved in these processes and pathways included IFNG, IL17A, TNF, IL22 and IL23A. PDE1B, CSF2 and IL36G were identified as the most connected genes in a co-expression network, while the connection between SAA2 and SIGLEC5 was the most important for flow of information within the network. Genes encoding for pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF, IL1B, IL6, IL2, and IL12B, and chemokines CCL3, CCL4 and CCL20 were also upregulated at 6 and 24 h post stimulation, as was the β-defensin gene TAP. These results assist in understanding how mycobacterial cell wall fractions alter immune function and may contribute to our understanding of the immune stimulant response attributed to Amplimune.

Ethical treatment of animals is the keystone of livestock production. Assessment of welfare is integral to assurance that animals experience a good life. Underpinning assurance are concepts of what constitutes good welfare, a good life and wellbeing. This review examines the concepts of welfare and wellbeing and the frameworks that have been developed for describing their scope. Historically, the tripartite model of welfare (feeling well, functioning well, leading a natural life) has been translated into the Five Freedoms (FF), Five Domains (FD), Good Life (GL), Welfare through Competence (WtC) and OIE World Organisation for Animal Health Welfare Principles frameworks. These frameworks provide scaffolds for numerous welfare assessment schemes. However, the three-part model of wellbeing (eudaimonia, hedonia, social interaction) lacks an explicit assessment framework, although FD, GL and WtC implicitly address aspects of wellbeing. Whereas positive affective (hedonic) experiences are considered to constitute positive welfare, positive aspects of eudaimonic function and social interaction are considered to be aspects of wellbeing above and beyond any indirect contribution they make to positive affective experiences (i.e. positive welfare). In this view, positive health is more than the absence of ill-health and positive social interactions are more than freedom from social isolation. New phenotypes in farm animals identified through analysis of sensor data are providing new perspectives on the functional integrity of biological processes that align well with concepts of wellbeing. These analyses draw on methods in resilience theory to examine stability in complex dynamic systems, specifically, uniformity of trajectories, periodicity of biorhythms and complexity of networks. A framework is proposed that loosely partitions FF, FD, GL and WtC into inputs, opportunities, and outcomes. The framework positions the outcome of biological integrity within the context of input constraints that can generate harms and deficiencies, and environmental opportunities that can foster acquisition of competencies and flourishing. It combines the eudaimonic, hedonic and social aspects of wellbeing within the tripartite terminology of welfare. It is hoped that the framework can help orientate new descriptions of biological function in farm animals derived from sensor data within the broader literature on welfare and wellbeing.

An ability to describe the quality of lived experience across the course of an animal's life is of increasing interest in studies on wellbeing in farm animals. Integrity of physical functions is an important aspect of the tripartite model of wellbeing: feeling, functioning and interacting well. This review examines measures of functional integrity as potential indicators of functional (eudaimonic) wellbeing. Copious literature shows that coping with day-to-day fluctuations in the environment influences (1) periodicity of biorhythms, (2) allocation of resources to growth, defence and repair, and (3) rate of biological aging. Here we review opportunities for assessing functional integrity through analysis of (1) the dynamic status of physiological and behavioural variables, (2) the accretion of resources in production tissues (milk, eggs, body mass, offspring) and physical structures (fibre, hoof, bone, tooth, placoid scale, otolith, beak), and (3) biological age. A reduction in periodicity of biorhythms, complexity of behaviours, or uniformity of trajectories of growth and production is often associated with poorer current and future health outcomes and shorter functional longevity. These analytical approaches are grounded in statistical measures of stability in complex dynamic systems. Additionally, the cumulative effect of wear and tear on biological age can be assessed via telomere length, DNA methylation, biomarkers of allostatic load, hair cortisol, and physiological functional capacity. Timeseries of behaviour, physiology and accretion provide a richer record of functional integrity than do cumulative indicators of biological age. Indicators of integrity are needed for each phase of the animal's life course including attainment of developmental competencies, stability of mature performance, and rate of decline with advancing age, to provide a comprehensive record across the whole of the animal's life. The utility of measures may differ between real-time and retrospective assessments and between application to every individual versus sentinels. Further validation is required for interpretating measures of functional integrity as indicators of the functional aspect of wellbeing, together with determining their practicality and reliability before translation to commercial settings is feasible. A single type of indicator of functional wellbeing (e.g. DNA methylation) is unlikely to have utility for all life stages, species, production systems, and environments.

Understanding the effects of repeated testing on behaviour is essential for behavioural tests that are re-applied to the same individuals for research and welfare assessment purposes. Assessing the repeatability of behaviour can also help us understand the influence of persistent traits vs transient states on animal responses during testing. This study examined the repeatability of behavioural responses in an attention bias test developed for sheep as a measure of affective state. Sheep were assessed in the attention bias test three times (n = 81 sheep), with testing occurring at intervals of 1 year then 2 weeks. During testing, individual sheep were exposed to a dog located behind a window for 3 s in a 4 × 4 m arena, then the dog was obscured from view, removed and sheep behaviours were recorded for 180 s. We hypothesised that behaviours in the test would have moderate-high repeatability but that the mean behavioural responses would change over consecutive trials as sheep habituated to the test environment. To estimate repeatability, data were modelled using restricted maximum likelihood linear mixed-effects models, fitting animal ID as a random effect. Vigilance behaviour, defined as having the head at or above shoulder height, was moderately repeatable (r = 0.58). Latency to eat (r = 0.20) and duration spent looking towards the previous location of the dog (attention to the dog wall) (r = 0.08) had low repeatability. Mean latency to eat did not differ significantly between trials (P = 0.2) and mean vigilance behaviour tended to decrease over the trials (P = 0.07). Mean duration of attention to the dog wall significantly decreased across the trials (P < 0.001), while mean zones crossed increased (P < 0.001), as did behaviours directed towards the exit door such as duration in proximity and pawing at the door. Overall, vigilance behaviour was moderately repeatable, suggesting it may have been driven by temperament or personality traits, while attention and feeding behaviours may have been more influenced by transient affective states or other factors, however further research is needed to better tease apart these potential effects. Sheep demonstrated some habituation to the test over consecutive trials. Care should therefore be taken during future application of the test to ensure all animals undergoing attention bias testing have equivalent experience for a valid interpretation of their relative behavioural responses.

Intensive management of cattle in open-air and enclosed housing systems known as feedlots is a widespread and growing practice for production of beef. Feedlots can expose cattle to harms with the potential to compromise behavioural, physiological and mental activities. In addition, there is a growing realisation that livestock production systems need to enable positive welfare outcomes through provision of opportunities for positive affective engagement with the environment. This chapter describes aspects of the physical environment, management practices and animal genotype that influence welfare outcomes in feedlots. Topics considered include housing, food and water, thermal comfort, health, pregnancy management, environmental enrichment, weaning practices, transport, painful husbandry procedures, backgrounding, preconditioning, induction practices, mixing, vaccination, non-specific immune stimulation, antibiotic use, metaphylaxis, stockperson attitudes, breed, temperament, immune competence and resilience. Attention is drawn to the potential for genotype, prior experience and the physical and psychological structures of the environment to enhance competence of animals to adapt to and engage positively with their environment and to be resilient to daily challenges posed by the feedlot environment. It is concluded that adaptability, resilience and positive affective engagement are complements to good animal management, providing important additional pathways towards positive welfare outcomes during finishing in well-designed feedlots.

Resilience can be defined as the ability of an animal to remain productive in the face of diverse environmental challenges. Several factors contribute to an animal's resilience including its ability to resist disease, cope with climatic extremes and respond to stressors. Immune competence, a proxy trait for general disease resistance, is expected to contribute to an animal's resilience. This research aimed to develop a practical method to assess immune competence in Merino sheep which would not restrict the future sale of tested animals, and to estimate genetic parameters associated with the novel trait. We also aimed to explore associations between immune competence and other industry-relevant disease resistance and fitness-related traits and to assess the ability of immune competence phenotypes to predict health outcomes. Here, the ability of Merino wethers (n = 1 339) to mount both an antibodymediated and cell-mediated immune response was used to define their immune competence phenotype. For that purpose, antigens in a commercial vaccine were administered at the commencement of weaning and their responses were assessed. Univariate sire models were used to estimate variance components and heritabilities for immune competence and its component traits. Bivariate sire models were used to estimate genetic correlations between immune competence and a range of disease resistance and fitness-related traits. The heritability of immune competence and its component traits, antibodymediated immune response and cell-mediated immune response were estimated at 0.49 +/- 0.14, 0.52 +/- 0.14 and 0.36 +/- 0.11, respectively. Immune competence was favourably genetically correlated with breech flystrike incidence (-0.44 +/- 0.39), worm egg count (-0.19 +/- 0.23), dag score (-0.26 +/- 0.31) and fitness compromise (-0.35 +/- 0.24) but not fleece rot (0.17 +/- 0.23). Results suggest that selection for immune competence has the potential to improve the resilience of Merino sheep; however, due to the large standard errors associated with correlation estimates reported here, further studies will be required in larger populations to validate associations between immune competence and disease resistance and fitness traits in Australian Merino sheep. Crown Copyright (c) 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Animal Consortium. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Lumpy wool (dermatophilosis) develops following prolonged wetting of sheep when bacterial proliferation in wool and on skin induce an exudative dermatitis, causing a superficial skin lesion and damage to wool follicles and fibres. The incidence of dermatophilosis is strongly dependent on wet and warm weather and, hence, infection is sporadic. While older animals are less at risk than are lambs, it is unclear whether this reflects naturally acquired immune resistance or the maturation of skin and wool fibres. Dermatophilosis directly causes wool production losses and it also is a risk factor for blowfly strike, which has a substantial economic impact and increasing challenges associated with current control procedures. This review assessed research on the bacterial causes of lumpy wool, the characteristics of the resulting immune defence reactions in sheep, current control strategies, and limitations of previous attempts to control lumpy wool by sheep vaccination.

A capacity for an animal to maintain or regain healthy functioning in the face of environmental disturbances is recognised as resilience. For the individual animal, dynamic properties of the trajectory of performance traits (e.g. daily milk yield), periodicity of physiological and behavioural variables (e.g. body temperature) and complexity of biological functions (e.g. behavioural repertoire) can provide indicators of its resilience. These indicators provide a view of the individual's attempts to cope physically (and emotionally) with its non-shared micro-environment. The concept of resilience is examined as a multifaceted attribute that is hidden from direct measurement. The challenges for establishing relationships between general resilience and context-specific resilience such as disease resilience are explored by comparison with the multifaceted construct of temperament (personality). Lower variance in deviations from performance trajectories and stronger periodicity in rhythmic physiological and behavioural variables are mostly heritable and favourably associated with health and longevity. In humans, wellbeing is associated with health outcomes, and biomarkers of health are more strongly associated with eudaimonic than hedonic wellbeing. The psychological state of eudaimonia is associated with the capacity to express agency, function well, fulfill biological potential and express environmental mastery. The need for indicators of eudaimonia in animals has been suggested previously. Links between environmental mastery and the capacity to develop and express physiological, immune, behavioural, cognitive and affective competencies are examined. It is suggested that longitudinal data on individual animals can provide a precision physical indicator of eudaimonic positive welfare. In this view, positive welfare entails both eudaimonic and hedonic aspects of wellbeing, neither of which is alone sufficient to describe or to maximise positive welfare. Cumulative scores of resilience may have utility for assessing the lifetime welfare experience of the individual and when summed at the farm level may provide a metric for benchmarking welfare performance. Breeding for resilience selects for normativity of biological functions assessed against the individual animal's own baseline of inherited and developmentally acquired potential. This differs from current approaches to selection for production, which aim to maximise production or production efficiency benchmarked against the group mean. Biological costs and trade-offs for resilience require further research.

Public scrutiny surrounds the intensive feedlot finishing of beef cattle, likely due to the assumption that cattle cannot perform their full repertoire of natural behaviours. However, it is not well-known how certain aspects of the environment influence both cattle perception of a feedlot environment and the behaviours they perform within it, particularly with increasing levels of mud. The objective of this study was to perform a Y-maze test to assess the preference of Angus steers for either a pasture environment or a feedlot at three pad scores, which were based on increasing mud depth relative to the cattle's hoof and leg. Cattle were tested both morning and afternoon for ten consecutive days, with lying behaviours and number of steps measured using IceQube (R) accelerometers. Here we show that day affected cattle's preference for pasture versus feedlot environments, with choice alternating between consecutive days (P < 0.001), and cattle also exhibited a preference for pasture at night (P = 0.04). Although the paddock environment was preferred at all pad scores, increasing mud level did not significantly influence the preference of cattle for either environment (P = 0.39), and it is likely that both environments contained rewarding stimuli. There was a significant interaction between pad score and location for lying behaviours and number of steps taken (all P < 0.001), with the highest pad score being associated with reductions in these behaviours within the feedlot. Evidence of a rebound effect for lying behaviours in the paddock for this pad score indicates that high levels of mud may negatively impact welfare when no alternative space to lie is provided.

Fleece rot develops following prolonged wetting of sheep when bacterial proliferation in wool and on skin induces exudation of serum proteins onto the skin surface and causes damage to wool follicles and fibres. These processes create an attractive environment for blowflies to lay eggs, leading to body strike. Current reliance on insecticides for prevention and treatment of fly strike is being increasingly challenged by development of insecticide resistance. This review examines the large body of past research on the bacterial causes of fleece rot, the genetics of sheep susceptibility and resistance, the characteristics of the resulting immune defence reactions, and attempts to control fleece rot by vaccination. The high dependence on weather conditions for expression of fleece rot hampers studies on the disease. Normal skin and wool are populated by a dynamic microbial community. During adverse environmental conditions, natural resistance to fleece rot associated with physical characteristics of wool and skin can be overwhelmed and a complex mix of bacteria flourishes. Prolonged hydration alone, and in combination with bacterial exoproducts, induces dermatitis and exudation of immunoglobulins and other serum proteins onto the skin surface. Pathogens do not usually penetrate the epidermis. Nonetheless, during prolonged skin hydration, sheep can become sensitised to fleece rot pathogens and produce antibodies. Antibody titres rise late within a typical (3 week) case of fleece rot. High naturally acquired antibody titres may contribute to resistance to fleece rot. In contrast to some evidence for a protective role of antibody, there is little evidence for innate or adaptive cellular immune responses contributing to protection against fleece rot pathogens. Previous attempts to develop vaccines have met with mixed success. Nonetheless, there remain prospects for development of a new vaccine to control fleece rot. Further knowledge on the microbial ecology of normal and wet skin would assist this endeavour and may help identify other control strategies.

Background Infectious disease has a significant impact on livestock production. Availability of alternatives to antibiotics to prevent and treat disease is required to reduce reliance on antibiotics while not impacting animal welfare. Innate immune stimulants, such as mycobacterium cell wall fractions (MCWF), are used as alternatives to antibiotics for the treatment and prevention of infectious disease in a number of species including cattle, horses and dogs. This study aimed to evaluate the safety of Amplimune®, an MCWF‐based immune stimulant, for weaner Angus cattle. Methods On day −1 and 0, sixty mixed‐sex Angus weaner cattle were transported for 6 h before being inducted and housed in a large single pen, simulating feedlot induction conditions. The cattle were assigned to one of six treatment groups (n = 10 per group): 2 mL Amplimune intramuscularly (2IM); 2 mL Amplimune subcutaneously (2SC); 5 mL Amplimune intramuscularly (5IM); 5 mL Amplimune subcutaneously (5SC); 5 mL saline intramuscularly (SalIM) and 5 mL saline subcutaneously (SalSC) on day 0 following transportation. Body temperature, body weight, concentrations of circulating pro‐inflammatory cytokines (TNFα, IL‐1β, IL‐6 and IL‐12) and haematology parameters were measured at various times up to 96 h post‐treatment. Results No adverse effects from Amplimune treatment were observed. Amplimune induced an increase in circulating cytokine TNFα concentrations, total white blood cell count and lymphocyte counts indicative of activation of the innate immune system without causing an excessive inflammatory response. Conclusions Results confirm that Amplimune can be safely administered to beef cattle at the dose rates and via the routes of administration investigated here.

During prolonged wetting of the fleece, proliferation of bacterial flora often dominated by Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Dermatophilus congolensis can induce dermatitis and fleece damage termed fleece rot and dermatophilosis respectively, which predispose sheep to blowfly strike. A large research effort in the 1980s and 1990s on vaccines to control fleece rot and dermatophilosis met with limited success. This review examines theoretical and technological advances in microbial ecology, pathogenesis, immunology, vaccine development and the characterisation of microbial virulence factors that create new opportunities for development of vaccines against these diseases. Genomic technologies have now created new opportunities for examining microbial dynamics and pathogen virulence in dermatitis. An effective vaccine requires the combination of appropriate antigens with an adjuvant that elicits a protective immune response that ideally provides long-lasting protection in the field. A clinical goal informed by epidemiological, economic and animal welfare values is needed as a measure of vaccine efficacy. Due to dependence of fleece rot and dermatophilosis on sporadic wet conditions for their expression, vaccine development would be expedited by in vitro correlates of immune protection. The efficacy of vaccines is influenced by genetic and phenotypic characteristics of the animal. Advances in understanding vaccine responsiveness, immune defence in skin and immune competence in sheep should also inform any renewed efforts to develop new fleece rot and dermatophilosis vaccines. The commercial imperatives for new vaccines are likely to continue to increase as the animal welfare expectations of society intensify and reliance on pharmacotherapeutics decrease due to chemical resistance, market pressures and societal influences. Vaccines should be considered part of an integrated disease control strategy, in combination with genetic selection for general immune competence and resistance to specific diseases, as well as management practices that minimise stress and opportunities for disease transmission. The strategy could help preserve the efficacy of pharmacotherapeutics as tactical interventions to alleviate compromised welfare when adverse environmental conditions lead to a break down in integrated strategic disease control. P. aeruginosa and D. congolensis are formidable pathogens and development of effective vaccines remains a substantial challenge.

Genetic strategies aimed at improving general immune competence (IC) have the potential to reduce the incidence and severity of disease in beef production systems, with resulting benefits of improved animal health and welfare and reduced reliance on antibiotics to prevent and treat disease. Implementation of such strategies first requires that methodologies be developed to phenotype animals for IC and demonstration that these phenotypes are associated with health outcomes. We have developed a methodology to identify IC phenotypes in beef steers during the yard weaning period, which is both practical to apply on-farm and does not restrict the future sale of tested animals. In the current study, a total of 838 Angus steers, previously IC phenotyped at weaning, were categorized as low (n = 98), average (n = 653), or high (n = 88) for the IC phenotype. Detailed health and productivity data were collected on all steers during feedlot finishing, and associations between IC phenotype, health outcomes, and productivity were investigated. A favorable association between IC phenotype and number of mortalities during feedlot finishing was observed with higher mortalities recorded in low IC steers (6.1%) as compared with average (1.2%, P < 0.001) or high (0%, P = 0.018) IC steers. Disease incidence was numerically highest in low IC steers (15.3 cases/100 animals) and similar in average IC steers (10.1 cases/100 animals) and high IC steers (10.2 cases/100 animals); however, differences between groups were not significant. No significant influence of IC phenotype on average daily gain was observed, suggesting that selection for improved IC is unlikely to incur a significant penalty to production. The potential economic benefits of selecting for IC in the feedlot production environment were calculated. Health-associated costs were calculated as the sum of lost production costs, lost capital investment costs, and disease treatment costs. Based on these calculations, health-associated costs were estimated at AUS$103/head in low IC steers, AUS$25/head in average IC steers, and AUS$4/head in high IC steers, respectively. These findings suggest that selection for IC has the potential to reduce mortalities during feedlot finishing and, as a consequence, improve the health and welfare of cattle in the feedlot production environment and reduce health-associated costs incurred by feedlot operators.

Docking the tail of lambs is a standard husbandry procedure and is achieved through several techniques including clamps, hot or cold knives and latex rings, the last of which is the most popular. All tail docking methods cause acute pain which can be reduced by application of local anesthetic, however precise anatomical injection for optimal efficacy requires considerable skill. This pen trial evaluated the ability of local anesthetic (LA) delivered with a dual function ring applicator/injector to alleviate acute tail docking pain. Thirty ewe lambs were assigned to one of three treatment groups (n = 10 per group): ring plus local anesthetic (Ring LA), ring only (Ring) and sham handled control (Sham). Lambs were videoed and their behavior categorized every five minutes for the first hour and every 10 min for the subsequent two hours after treatment. There was a significant effect (p < 0.001) of treatment on total active pain related behaviors in the first hour, with Ring lambs showing higher counts compared to Ring LA or Sham. Ring lambs also displayed a significantly higher count of combined abnormal postures (p < 0.001) than Ring LA or Sham lambs. Delivery of 1.5 mL of 2% lignocaine via the dual action device abolished abnormal behaviors and signs of pain in Ring LA lambs. However, lambs in the Ring LA group spent less time attempting to suckle compared to Ring and Sham lambs, suggesting that some residual discomfort remained.

Lambs in Australia undergo painful husbandry procedures as part of common husbandry. The magnitude and duration of pain are difficult to assess in lambs. Most currently used methods rely on behavioral expressions and physiological markers that may fail to detect the state of pain an animal experience. This study examined motivation of 12-week-old lambs experiencing chronic pain to self-medicate by consumption of feed containing an analgesic agent as an indicator of pain in lambs. In this study, 36 male Merino lambs were individually penned and acclimated to pelleted feed and two artificial odors: strawberry and banana. Once acclimated to odored feed, lambs were tested for their individual preference for the odors. Lambs were then assigned to one of two groups: Sham—sham handled day 0 and 7 or Ring—Ring castrated day 0 and tail docked day 7. To enable self-medication testing, lambs underwent a conditioning period (day 0–3) followed by the self-medication period (day 7–12). On day 0 lambs were castrated or sham handled, and then offered only medicated feed that contained an odor cue (either strawberry or banana). On day 7, lambs underwent tail-docking or sham handling and were offered both the conditioned medicated feed and non-medicated feed. Amount of each feed consumed was recorded 1 and 12 h after offer each day. Blood samples were taken for cortisol and white blood cell analysis and behavioral observations were recorded for 12 h following treatment. There was no difference in preference for medicated feed between Ring and Sham lambs during the self-medication phase (P= 0.18). Lambs in both groups displayed a significant preference for strawberry cued medicated feed during the self-medicated period when compared to the other testing periods (P= 0.05). Ring lambs displayed more active pain behaviors (mean = 15.1) than Sham (mean = 0.4,P< 0.05). Following castration, Ring lambs had a higher neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio at 6, 24, 48, and 72 h. This study was not able to demonstrate that lambs can self-medicate for a state of pain.

The use of local anesthesia at the time of ring castration and tail docking can improve lamb welfare. However, few local anesthetics are registered for sheep, and data on their duration of effect is limited. Three studies were conducted to evaluate the efficacy of procaine (P), lidocaine (L), and bupivacaine (B) in terms of observed alleviation of behavioral responses to castration and/or tail docking in 10-min blocks in the first 60 min post-treatment. In each study, comparisons were made between two groups of lambs castrated and/or tail docked with rubber rings and either receiving the agent using the NUMNUTS® instrument (N) or receiving no anesthetic agent (RR). Acute pain behavior was lower in NL (n = 28) than RRL (n = 15) males in the first 10 min post-procedure (p < 0.05); lower in NB (n = 16) than RRB (n = 16) males in periods 10–20 min (0.05 < p < 0.01), 20–30 min (p < 0.05) and 40–50 min (0.05 < p < 0.01); lower in NB (n = 16) than RRB (n = 16) females between 20 and 40 min post-procedure (0.05 < p < 0.01); lower in NP (n = 8) than RRP (n = 7) males in period 10–20 min (0.05 < p < 0.01), and lower in NP (n = 9) than RRP (n = 9) females in periods 0–10 min (0.05 < p < 0.01), and 10–40 min (p < 0.05). Benefits were modest, and the effects of procaine appear to last longer than lidocaine, while bupivacaine is slower to take effect than either procaine or lidocaine but may provide longer-lasting pain relief. The duration of action of local anesthetics is short in sheep, and detailed behavioral evaluations are required in the first hour post-procedure to establish efficacy.