S. Lomax and P. A. Windsor, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney August 2013
Castration involves the removal of the testes and is performed to improve product quality and management of male calves. The procedure has been proven to cause significant pain and stress, and despite several attempts to reduce the impact of castration on animal welfare, there has yet to be a practical and afford- able option made available for farmer application. To address this issue, we conducted 2 trials (n = 18 and 27) to examine the efficacy of topical anesthetic Tri- Solfen (TA) to alleviate the pain of surgical castration. Angus bull calves (135.8 ± 5.7 kg) aged 3 to 4 mo were randomly allocated to 3 treatment groups, including surgical castration, castration in combination with TA, and uncastrated controls.