Dear Colleagues,

I am deeply honored to be the Guest Editor for this special issue of Animals. I was raised surrounded by beef cattle and cattle producers and am now a veterinary anesthesiologist with a focus on the relief of pain and suffering in animals. Together, my background and professional experience sustain my passionate drive for continual advances in anesthesia and analgesia for all animals, including farm animals.

Pain has well-known potential to cause negative impacts, often profound negative impacts, on the health, behavior, welfare and quality of life in animals. In farm animals, these negative impacts can lead to a myriad of effects, including decreased weight gain, milk production and immune function. These, as well as other adverse effects, can in turn negatively affect the producer through animal and economic loss. Unfortunately, pain often goes unrecognized in farm animals, and treatments can be limited by choice (i.e., there are few choices), availability, practicality, meat/milk residues and economic factors. Thus, there is a need for more research on pain identification and management, along with research on the impact of pain on health, behavior, welfare, and quality of life. Producer and consumer attitudes as shaped by the effect of pain in this field should also be explored.

Sedation and/or anesthesia may be required for the initial treatment of some painful conditions. Drugs for these procedures are also limited by the factors listed above, and therefore, there is a critical need for research on anesthesia/sedation techniques. Such work should include strategies for anesthesia in the field and the mitigation of pain during the surgical procedure.

I know that numerous people share a similar passion for the well-being of both animals and their producers, and I hope that you will join me in the mission to advance—and share—knowledge of safe and effective analgesia, sedation and anesthesia for farm animals. This Special Issue is inviting the submission of both original research papers and reviews. The issue is focused on farm animals of all types, and topics of interest include, but are not limited to: (1) identification of pain; (2) evaluation of the impact of pain on animal health, behavior, welfare, quality of life and/or production; (3) development of new analgesic, sedative or anesthetic drugs/techniques; (4) assessment of the validity, reliability and feasibility of existing, new or novel analgesic, sedative or anesthetic drugs/techniques; and (5) measurement of the effects of analgesic, sedative and anesthetic drugs on physiologic systems.

I am looking forward to working with each of you in this Special Issue as we take steps towards achieving this important and honorable mission.

Prof. Dr. Tamara L. Grubb
Guest Editor

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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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.

• farm animals
• welfare
• consumer attitudes
• sedation
• painful conditions
• analgesic
• new analgesic drugs