title: Pre-test habituation improves the reliability of a handheld test of mechanical nociceptive threshold in dairy cows.
abstract: Mechanical nociceptive threshold (MNT) testing has been used to investigate aspects of painful states in bovine claws. We investigated a handheld tool, where the applied stimulation force was monitored continuously relative to a pre-encoded based target force. The effect on MNT of two pre-testing habituation procedures was performed in two different experiments comprising a total of 88 sound Holsteins dairy cows kept either inside or outside their home environment. MNT testing was performed using five consecutive mechanical nociceptive stimulations per cow per test at a fixed pre-encoded target rate of 2.1N/s. The habituation procedure performed in dairy cows kept in their home environment led to lowered intra-individual coefficient of variation of MNT (P<0.001), increased MNT (P<0.001) and decreased the discrepancy between applied and target force during stimulations (P<0.001). Pre-test habituation improved the reliability of the handheld tool when used in dairy cows kept in their home environment.
authors.affiliation: Dairy and Cattle Farming, SEGES, Agro Food Park 15, DK-8200 Aarhus N, Denmark; Department of Large Animal Science, University of Copenhagen, Grønnegårdsvej 8, DK-1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark. Electronic address: pra@seges.dk.
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Raundal
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences, Swedish Agricultural University, Ulls väg 26, Box 7054, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: P H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Andersen
authors.affiliation: National Veterinary Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Bülowsvej 27, DK-1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Toft
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Aarhus University, AU-Foulum, Blichers Allé, Postbox 50, DK-8830 Tjele, Denmark.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Herskin
authors.affiliation: Department of Large Animal Science, University of Copenhagen, Grønnegårdsvej 8, DK-1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Forkman
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, Aarhus University, AU-Foulum, Blichers Allé, Postbox 50, DK-8830 Tjele, Denmark.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Munksgaard
authors.affiliation: University of British Columbia, PO Box 202, 6947 Highway 7, P.O. Box 1000, Agassiz, British Columbia V0M 1A0, Canada.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: de Passillé
authors.affiliation: University of British Columbia, PO Box 202, 6947 Highway 7, P.O. Box 1000, Agassiz, British Columbia V0M 1A0, Canada.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rushen
mesh_terms: D000822:Animal Husbandry / Q000379:methods*; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014110:Touch
keywords: Dairy cows; Habituation; Mechanical nociceptive threshold; Pain