A new $650,000 grant from the US Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture through their Agriculture and Food Research Initiative will help a consortium of researchers, led by the American Association of Swine Veterinarians, to validate behavioral, physiologic, and biomarker-based endpoints that reliably measure pain associated with surgical castration in piglets. In addition to AASV, the project collaborators include Kansas State University, North Carolina State University, Prairie Swine Centre, Iowa State University, Smithfield Foods, Merck Animal Health, National Pork Board, Beef+Lamb New Zealand, Midwest Veterinary Services, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
We know that surgical castration of piglets causes acute pain as evidenced by changes in behavior and physiology. The US swine industry is committed to protecting and promoting pig welfare and finding ways to minimize pain and distress to the animals in our care. Immunocastration is a viable alternative to surgical castration, however, there has been limited uptake of its use in the US marketplace to date. Beyond this technology, farmers and veterinarians are currently limited in how to address the pain management challenge.
This is in part due to the lack of analgesic or anesthetic drugs in the United States specifically approved with an indication for the control of pain in swine. There is also a lack of consistent data related to the efficacy of pain mitigation products primarily due to the lack of uniform testing methodology and protocols.1 This in turn makes evaluating efficacy of pain mitigation interventions difficult and has prevented consensus on best practices for pain relief.2 Lack of consistent protocols creates difficulty for pharmaceutical companies to submit new product approvals or label claims related to pain, veterinarians to confidently prescribe product for extra-label use, researchers to reliably assess pain and potential mitigation strategies, and pig farmers to make future business decisions regarding animal welfare.
The long-term goal of the funded project is to improve pig welfare on-farm by effectively controlling pain associated with on-farm surgical procedures, such as castration, in a manner that is safe for the animal and the consumer and is compliant with US regulation. The primary goal of the project is to facilitate consistency and rigor through the development of a research protocol utilizing validated endpoints that are well-defined and reliably measure pain in piglets. This research creates a framework that may easily be adapted to address other painful procedures or conditions experienced by swine, such as tail docking, lameness, injury, and parturition.
Establishing these validated endpoints will provide meaningful swine-specific references for FDA as they review future submissions for new drug approvals with a claim for controlling pain associated with castration of swine. The outcomes from this study will also provide a validated tool set for pharmaceutical companies’ research and development pursuits in the area of pain control to satisfy substantial evidence of effectiveness requirements for the approval of analgesic drugs in swine. Academic researchers who specialize in pain assessment can use the validated endpoint protocols in their future research and ultimately provide better consistency in the published data.
Ultimately, this consistency will aid the veterinary practitioner and farmers in evaluating efficacy, developing consensus on best practices for pain management, and making future business decisions regarding animal welfare. As animal welfare has the potential to become more prominent in trade negotiations, having validated endpoints for measuring pain and solutions for controlling pain will help the US swine industry remain competitive in the global marketplace.
References
1. O’Connor A, Anthony R, Bergamasco L, Coetzee JF, Dzikamunhenga RS, Johnson AK, Karriker LA, Marchant-Forde JN, Martineau GP, Millman ST, Pajor EA, Rutherford K, Sprague M, Sutherland MA, von Borrell E, Webb SR. Review: Assessment of completeness of reporting in intervention studies using livestock: an example from pain mitigation interventions in neonatal piglets. Anim. 2016;10(4):660-670.
2. O’Connor A, Anthony R, Bergamasco L, Coetzee J, Gould S, Johnson AK, Karriker LA, Marchant-Forde JN, Martineau GS, McKean J, Millman ST, Niekamp S, Pajor EA, Rutherford K, Sprague M, Sutherland M, von Borell E, Dzikamunhenga RS. Pain management in the neonatal piglet during routine management procedures. Part 2: grading the quality of evidence and the strength of recommendations. Anim Health Res Rev. 2014;15:39-62.
Sherrie Webb, MSc
Director of Swine Welfare