Frequency of disagreements between producers and veterinarians about pain management in cattle

Sage Mijares; Lily Edwards-Callaway; Elizabeth Johnstone; Lorann Stallones; Noa Román-Muñiz; Catie Cramer; Johann Coetzee

doi:10.3168/jdsc.2022-0232

Frequency of disagreements between producers and veterinarians about pain management in cattle

JDS Commun. 2022 Jul 22;3(5):353-356. doi: 10.3168/jdsc.2022-0232. eCollection 2022 Sep.

Authors

Sage Mijares¹, Lily Edwards-Callaway¹, Elizabeth Johnstone¹, Lorann Stallones², Noa Román-Muñiz¹, Catie Cramer¹, Johann Coetzee³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Animal Sciences, Colorado State University, College of Agricultural Sciences, Fort Collins 80523.
² Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, College of Natural Sciences, Fort Collins 80521.
³ Department of Anatomy and Physiology, Kansas State University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Manhattan 66506.

Abstract

Pain management is a key element of ensuring animal welfare. Although the opinions of both producers and veterinarians affect decisions about the use of pain mitigation on cattle operations, little is known about how they communicate about this topic. Given the importance of a veterinary-client-patient relationship for developing pain mitigation protocols, understanding the communication between veterinarians and producers is key to the implementation of robust, industry-wide pain management protocols. The objectives of this survey were to understand how producers and veterinarians may respond to disagreements about pain mitigation and to determine where respondents obtain their knowledge about pain recognition and treatment. Results presented herein are part of a larger study previously described. An online survey was distributed to 6 cattle industry groups. Surveys that were >80% complete were included for analysis (n = 1,066). Approximately half of the respondents identified as producers (497, 46.6%) and half as veterinarians (569, 53.4%). The majority of producers believed that disagreements about the use of pain management in cattle never affected their relationship with their veterinarians (349, 70.2%). The veterinarian respondents indicated more disagreements, although the frequency was relatively low, with 43.9% (250) indicated having a disagreement less than once a year. Most producers and veterinarians indicated they were either "extremely unlikely" or "somewhat unlikely" to dissolve the relationship completely if disagreements about pain management arose (veterinarians: 398/569, 70%; producers: 294/497, 59.1%). Veterinarians and producers reported gaining their knowledge about pain recognition from a variety of sources including personal experience and continuing education opportunities. Disagreements about pain mitigation occurred infrequently; however, this could be due to few discussions about pain management in general. These results indicated that there is opportunity for veterinarians to engage with their producers in more discussions about pain management.