The animal health industry plays a key role in livestock protection as a provider of tools to help prevent, control and manage animal diseases affecting Europe’s farming community. Thanks to these tools (vaccines and medicines) Europe has been successful in managing animal diseases such as salmonella, bluetongue or foot and mouth disease which just years ago posed serious threats to animal health, food safety and public health.
The industry remains acutely aware of future critical challenges however and strives to continue developing advanced solutions that protect both animal and human health. Below you will find links to a number of fact sheets outlining some of the successes experienced thanks to animal health products.
Inflammation or pain in farm animals is due to a variety of health conditions and impact the animals’ welfare as well as their production capabilities. For instance, a cow or a sow with acute mastitis will experience pain and produce less milk of a lower quality.
Characteristics
Inflammation is the reaction of a part of the body in response to an injury or an illness such as a bacterial infection. The classical signs of inflammation are pain, heat, redness, swelling, and loss of function. The inflammatory reaction is primarily beneficial as it initiates the body’s repair processes. However, this reaction can become exaggerated and turn harmful to the body. For example, inflammation triggered by pneumonia causes more long-term damage to the lung tissue than the actual bacteria which caused the disease in the first place. In addition, the pain may also have a significant impact on the animal’s welfare.
How does control of pain and inflammation help food-producing animals?
Prevention or minimisation of pain and inflammation are very important aspects of good livestock management. Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are used to treat sick or injured animals. They decrease fever and inflammation as well as reduce pain, which in turn decreases the healing time and improves the animal’s appetite.
NSAIDs have several effects: