Pain Control
As the pork industry progresses, it is becoming important to consider pain management to provide higher quality animal care. The French National Institute for Agricultural Research recommends following the 3S system: suppress, substitute, and soothe. Suppress means eliminating painful procedures when possible, and each farm should individually evaluate if any procedures are not necessary. Substitute means using a less painful procedure, or altering a procedure so it is less painful. An example would be the reduction in age of castration from nursery age to 3-10 days old. Soothing pain can be done by pharmaceuticals, and hopefully will have advancements in the future for convenient, cost-effective methods. Some of the drugs that could potentially be used include anesthetics, analgesics, or sedatives (in combination with anesthetics). With the use of pharmaceuticals, the effectiveness of a drug for a certain procedure will need to be evaluated, and the withdrawal time considered.