Master of Science / Department of Clinical Sciences / David E. Anderson / Lameness in cattle is a common cause of pain however there are no approved cattle
analgesic drugs. Flunixin meglumine, the only non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug approved
for use in adult dairy cattle, is labeled for pyrexia associated with bovine respiratory disease,
endotoxemia, acute mastitis and associated inflammation. There is currently a lack of objective
data regarding the analgesic efficacy of flunixin meglumine in cattle.
The objectives of this study were to characterize an amphotericin B-induced lameness
model and to ascertain the analgesic effects of flunixin meglumine using multimodal assessment.
We hypothesized that flunixin meglumine would provide analgesia as evidenced by increased
activity levels as well as increased exerted force and contact area on the affected limb in flunixin treated steers.
Amphotericin B-induced synovitis arthritis was induced in the distal interphalangeal joint
of 10 dairy steers. The cattle were randomly allocated between a treatment and a control group.
The treatment steers received flunixin meglumine at the time of arthritis induction and at 12
hours post-induction. Accelerometric, gait, pressure mat, vital parameter and plasma cortisol
data were gathered in the pre and post-induction phases. The data were analyzed using linear
mixed models with treatment and time designated as fixed effects.
Induction of amphotericin B arthritis produced a moderate, transient lameness. Control
steers were more than twice as likely to be lame as flunixin meglumine treated steers using visual
lameness assessment (92.2% ± 8.1 versus 40.7% ± 2.5) (P<0.03). Flunixin meglumine treated
steers placed significantly greater force and contact area on the affected foot. Control steers also
placed significantly greater force, impulse and contact area on the paired claw as compared to
control steers. Flunixin treated steers spent considerably less time in recumbency than their
control counterparts, particularly in the immediate post-induction time period.
This is one of the first studies to document the character of an amphotericin B-induced
synovitis arthritis model in cattle as well as to document analgesic efficacy of a nonsteroidal
anti-inflammatory drug in an induced lameness model. Flunixin meglumine was efficacious in
providing analgesia in an amphotericin B-induced lameness model in dairy steers.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:KSU/oai:krex.k-state.edu:2097/4148 |
| Date | January 1900 |
| Creators | Schulz, Kara Lee |
| Publisher | Kansas State University |
| Source Sets | K-State Research Exchange |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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