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 time
required to administer analgesics to individual piglets are the main
deterrents to the swine industry adopting this practice. Having
an affordable and practical method of delivering pain medication
would likely increase the use of pain medication by producers, and
increase the acceptance of this procedure.
The objective of this study was to determine if pain medication can
be transferred to the piglet through the sow’s milk, and if so, to
determine how effective this technique is for reducing acute pain
at the time of castration, and for reducing pain and inflammation
after surgery. A novel technique for measuring pain in piglets using
a handling chute was also developed.
Results showed that the transfer of the analgesic, Metacam®,
to piglets via the sow’s milk was not eff ective, as the maximum
concentration of analgesic in piglet blood (up to 5 hours after
injection of the sow) was less than 1/200th of that found in sow’s
blood, and 1/80th of that found in milk. Thus, the concentration
of analgesic transferred to piglets via milk was too low to provide
effective pain relief. Modification of the drug could result in
increased transfer to piglets. Work is ongoing to validate the use of
the handling chute for measurement of castration pain in piglets.