Public concern regarding painful livestock procedures such as castration is increasing. Piglet
castration has been criticized, largely because pain medication is not commonly used. The cost and labour required to administer analgesics to individual piglets are the main deterrents to
producers adopting this practice. Having an affordable and practical method of delivering pain
medication would likely increase the acceptance of this procedure and use of pain medication by
producers. Previous studies with cattle have shown that analgesics can be transferred through
milk at lactation. However, there is a lack of research on swine and the degree of passive
transfer of these drugs to offspring. The objective of this study is to determine if the analgesic,
Meloxicam©, can be delivered to the piglets via the sow. The study is being conducted in three
parts, with the first objective being to determine if a) pain medication can be passed via the milk,
and b) the drug concentration found in milk. The second objective is to determine the most effective time period that will provide the maximum transfer of drug to piglets, and the third objective is to determine whether this method is effective at reducing pain responses during or after castration.