Pain relief options for lamb marking

Hosting an information session at Yass, Dr Stuart Williams, Yass Valley Veterinary, said the industry was aiming for the use of a local anaesthetic and a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) in combination as best practice.

"Administering a short term anaesthetic and a longer term treatment at the same time provides greater amelioration of the pain response than a single agent alone," he said.

Dr Williams said there were four options currently available to producers when undergoing mulesing, tail docking and castration - local anaesthetics Trisolfan and NumOcaine, and NSAIDs Meloxicam and Buccalgesic.

Speakers from Dechra Veterinary Products, Troy Animal Healthcare and Numnuts also presented.

Trisolfan is for acute pain when using a knife for all three procedures and sprayed on the open wound, while NumOcaine an injection when using rings for castration and tail docking.

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Meloxicam is for longer term pain relief and a subcutaneous injection suitable for all three procedures open or closed wounds, and Buccalgesic is the same drug in a gel form deposited into the cheek pouch.

Dr Williams said there were several benefits to using pain relief including lambs recovering quickly, mothering up better and reducing the risk of lambs rolling in the dirt and causing infection.

Dr Williams also said social licence was an important factor to consider for the future of the industry with animal welfare high on community expectation.

"To maintain the industry's social license to operate it has become important to acknowledge the community's concerns and provide analgesics for painful husbandry procedures," he said.

Adam Dawes, general manger of Wool Producers Australia, said he expected sooner rather than later pain relief for mulesing would be made mandatory and for tail docking and castration could follow after.

"On the international landscape we're starting to see some concerns here," he said.

Mr Dawes said the European Union were undertaking a welfare review, applied domestically but may also apply to imported product, potentially looking at mandated pain relief for mulesing, castration and tail docking that may require certification for any animal product exported to the EU.

Recently the pain relief drugs have become more easily available to producers with NumOcaine rescheduled as an S5 drug last year and Buccalgesic rescheduled to an S6 drug in February 2023, with Trisolfen also available over the counter.