title: Empathic veterinarians score cattle pain higher.
abstract: The treatment of cattle pain often relies upon veterinarians. The aim of this study was to qualify the influence of veterinarians skills, attitudes, and empathy on cattle pain assesment and consequently disbudding pain management. A web-based questionnaire was sent to Finnish veterinary students in either the preclinical or clinical stage, and also to production-animal practice oriented veterinarians. The questionnaire recorded demographics, statements of opinions, pain scoring of cattle conditions and procedures. Empathy towards humans (Interpersonal Reactivity Index, IRI) and reworded IRI to measure empathy towards animals were also covered. The overall response rate was approximately 40%. The association between pain and empathy scores were analyzed by Pearsońs correlation, and the factors affecting pain scores and empathy towards animals analyzed using linear models. The need for pain medication of calves during disbudding was well recognized and the intention to treat such pain was very common. Higher mean scores for cattle pain were associated with greater empathy towards humans. On average, respondents' empathy towards animals was greater than towards humans, and was associated with respondents' empathy towards humans, family size and attachment to family pet.
authors.affiliation: Research Centre for Animal Welfare, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland. Electronic address: marianna.norring@helsinki.fi.
authors.forename: Marianna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Norring
authors.affiliation: Research Centre for Animal Welfare, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Ingela
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Wikman
authors.affiliation: Research Centre for Animal Welfare, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Ann-Helena
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Hokkanen
authors.affiliation: Department of Equine and Small Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland; Department of Biomedical Engineering and Computational Science, Aalto University, FI-00076 Aalto, Espoo, Finland.
authors.forename: Miiamaaria V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Kujala
authors.affiliation: Research Centre for Animal Welfare, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, FI-00014 Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hänninen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002417:Cattle; D004645:Empathy; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000662:veterinary*; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D018634:Veterinarians / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Animal; Cattle; Disbudding; Empathy; Pain score; Welfare