Department of Veterinary Surgery and Radiology, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Anand Agricultural University, Anand-388 001 (Gujarat)
Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University, Bidar-585 401 (Karnataka)
The stress induced by cryosurgical disbudding using liquid nitrogen cryotherapy was evaluated in 60 clinically healthy crossbred calves of either sex, aged between 03 and 07 weeks. The horn buds were cryofrozen at −10°C (Group-I, 24 calves) or −20°C (Group-Il, 24 calves) cryofreezing either by overlapping freezing-thawing or double cycles of freezing followed by thawing, with or without the use of anaesthesia. Whereas, the animals of third group (12 calves) were not subjected to cryosurgical disbudding, but 6 animals each were assessed for stress with and without the used of anaesthesia. The calves were given ketoprofen as preemptive analgesic, xylazine as sedative and lignocaine for cornual nerve blockade wherein anaesthesia was to be used and rest of the calves were restrained manually wherein anaesthesia was not used. Physiological parameters, behavioural changes as well as plasma cortisol concentration were recorded before and at 5, 15, 45 min and at 2, 6 and 12 hr following cryosurgical disbudding including control animals. The use of anaesthetic protocol to perform cryosurgical disbudding reduced the magnitude but could not completely alleviate the pain and stress to the calves. The cryosurgical disbudding was also not free of the stress and hence should invariably be performed under suitable anaesthesia to reduce pain and stress to the animals.
