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Animals
Special Issues
Anaesthesia and Pain Management in Large Animals—Second Edition
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Anaesthesia and Pain Management in Large Animals—Second Edition

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Veterinary Clinical Studies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2026 | Viewed by 2351

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Gabrielle C. Musk

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Murdoch University, Perth 6150, Australia
Interests: analgesia; pain; production animals; cattle; sheep; pigs; poultry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Heidi S. Lehmann

E-Mail
Guest Editor
School of Veterinary and Life Sciences, Murdoch University, Perth 6150, Australia
Interests: veterinary anaesthesia and analgesia

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to highlight the recent advances in large animal pain management around the world. Large animals include those that are used for food production such as cattle, sheep and pigs. While there has been much progress in this area of veterinary medicine there are significant barriers to pain management of these species, especially on a large scale. Production practices may preclude regular interaction with these species, which makes pain assessment, and therefore, appropriate pain relief, difficult. Furthermore, pharmacopolitical considerations may preclude the use of appropriate analgesia.

Dr. Gabrielle C. Musk
Dr. Heidi S. Lehmann
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • analgesia
  • pain
  • production animals
  • cattle
  • sheep
  • pigs
  • poultry

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 2151 KB  
Article
Infrared Thermal Imaging as a Predictor of Lumbar Paravertebral Block Effectiveness in Cattle
by Jaime Viscasillas, Elsa Rave, Ariel Cañón-Pérez, María De Los Reyes Marti-Scharfhausen, Eva Zoe Hernández-Magaña, Agustín Martínez, José Ignacio Redondo and Angel García-Muñoz
Animals 2026, 16(1), 127; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani16010127 - 2 Jan 2026
Viewed by 663
Abstract
In the daily clinical practice of cattle, the use of locoregional anaesthesia is needed to provide analgesia during standing surgical procedures. It is important to ensure the success of the blockade before starting the surgery. One of the most used techniques is the [...] Read more.
In the daily clinical practice of cattle, the use of locoregional anaesthesia is needed to provide analgesia during standing surgical procedures. It is important to ensure the success of the blockade before starting the surgery. One of the most used techniques is the paravertebral lumbar block. In this pilot study we evaluated the efficacy of thermography in assessing this block. For this matter, 12 cows from our university research and teaching farm, with similar characteristics, were included and in which an ultrasound-guided technique of lumbar paravertebral block (T13/L1) or (L1/L2) with lidocaine was performed. Thermal photographs were taken with a FLIR® One camera at 0, 15, 30 and 45 min and at the same time a test to evaluate the response to a painful stimulus was performed in each dermatome (T13, L1, L2 and L3). The data was collected in predesigned cards and placed in the Excel programme for further statistical analysis with the R programme. The analysis determined a correlation between the increase in skin temperature of the dermatomes that had been blocked and the increase in skin temperature and the negative response to the painful stimulus test. Although the pilot study has some limitations, this allows us to assess the use of thermography as an efficient method for assessing the success of lumbar paravertebral blockade in cattle. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Anaesthesia and Pain Management in Large Animals—Second Edition)
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10 pages, 202 KB  
Article
Equipotent Dose and Cost Comparison of Atracurium and Rocuronium in Laboratory Pigs Anesthetized with Propofol
by Eleonora Benetti, Alessandro Mirra and Olivier Louis Levionnois
Animals 2025, 15(13), 1854; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani15131854 - 23 Jun 2025
Viewed by 1026
Abstract
Neuromuscular blocking agents such as atracurium and rocuronium are commonly used during anesthetic procedures in laboratory pigs. However, species-specific dosing guidelines remain limited, leading to reliance on data extrapolated from other species. This prospective, blinded study aimed to determine the equipotent dose for [...] Read more.
Neuromuscular blocking agents such as atracurium and rocuronium are commonly used during anesthetic procedures in laboratory pigs. However, species-specific dosing guidelines remain limited, leading to reliance on data extrapolated from other species. This prospective, blinded study aimed to determine the equipotent dose for atracurium (A) and rocuronium (R) in laboratory pigs receiving propofol and to compare their cost-effectiveness. Twelve healthy animals were randomly distributed according to the drug administered (n = 6 per group). For both drugs, the infusion rate was adjusted following an up-and-down titration to maintain a train-of-four count between 3 and 4. Group differences were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The bolus induction dose (mg/kg) was comparable between atracurium (2.3 [1.8–2.6]) and rocuronium (2 [2]), while atracurium was associated with higher costs (CHF/kg: A, 1.122 [0.878–1.366] versus R, 0.208 [0.208–0.208]; p = 0.002725). The maintenance infusion rate (mg/kg/h) was approximately 40% lower for atracurium (2.7 [2.5–2.8]) than for rocuronium (4.5 [4.4–4.5]; p = 0.004922), yet the maintenance cost (CFH/kg/h) remained higher for atracurium (A: 1.30 [1.22–1.37] versus R: 0.47 [0.45–0.47]; p = 0.0043). This study reports higher doses for anesthetized pigs compared to other species and demonstrates that rocuronium offers superior cost-effectiveness compared to atracurium under these experimental conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Anaesthesia and Pain Management in Large Animals—Second Edition)
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