Surgical Castration Changes Struggle Behavior and Vocalizations in Male Piglets

This study assessed acute pain in piglets during castration through behavioral indicators. Piglets (n=88) were randomly allocated to one of two treatments: surgical castration and sham-castration. Within 24 hours after birth, identical castration procedures were followed for both treatment groups, except sham piglets were not castrated. Struggle behavior (curl ups, leg kicks, and body flailing) and vocalization (duration and peak frequency) were analyzed during the castration procedure. Castrated piglets kicked more frequently than sham piglets (28.8 vs. 21.3 kicks/min, SE = 0.09; P = 0.02). Additionally, 51.2% of castrated piglets displayed body flailing, whereas only 4.4% of sham piglets displayed the same behavior (P = 0.03). Castrated piglets responded with more high frequency (≥1,000 Hz) calls than sham piglets (23.6 vs. 18.6 calls/min, SE = 0.26; P = 0.04) and high frequency calls tended to be of longer duration for castrated piglets (0.45 vs. 0.27 sec/call, SE = 0.04; P = 0.08). Results indicate that surgical castration increased the frequency of leg kicks, body flailing, and high frequency calls compared to sham-castration, suggesting these may be useful behavioral indicators of acute pain in piglets.