Castration of calves: a survey among Swiss suckler beef farmers.

摘要

In fall 2004, a survey of a representative sample of 1185 Swiss suckler beef farmers was carried out by questionnaire (return rate 51.9%). Based on the survey, 32.7% of the respondents castrated their calves without the help of a veterinarian, 37.8% mandated a veterinarian to carry out the castrations and 29.4% did not castrate their bull calves at all. On the average, 8 calves were castrated per farm and year at ages of 7 and 34 days when the castration was carried out by a farmer and a veterinarian, respectively. Almost all farmers castrated their calves with the rubber ring, and a majority considered no other method as feasible. 73.9% of the veterinarians used the Burdizzo technique, wherein 14.9% applied rubber rings, and 11.2% performed a surgery. 22.6% of the farmers and 85.4% of the veterinarians used sedation: local anaesthesia was performed in 32.1% of the castrations carried out by farmers and in 84.5% of the castrations carried out by veterinarians. 65.7% of the farmers were concerned by the change of the Swiss Animal Protection Ordinance (2001) when pain relief became mandatory. 47.6% of these farmers changed their castration routine: 53.1% now mandated a veterinarian, 33.0% used sedation or local anaesthesia and 8.9% did not castrate their calves at all. 59.8% of the farmers intended to participate in a future course for laymen to study and train the technique of local anaesthesia for castration. Castration of calves for many suckler beef farmers is an inevitable husbandry procedure. The political goal that all calves shall be castrated with local anaesthesia can only be achieved when livestock owners are informed about the distress caused by the castration and convinced the benefits of local anaesthesia. Veterinarians are important information carriers in this process. The implementation also produces work, be it the more complex castration procedure or the education of the farmers who want to carry out the local anaesthesia themselves..