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. 2021 May;188(9):e82.
doi: 10.1002/vetr.82. Epub 2021 Feb 2.

Towards an improved pain assessment in castrated horses using facial expressions (HGS) and circulating miRNAs

Emanuela Dalla Costa  1 , Francesca Dai  1 , Cristina Lecchi  1 , Federico Ambrogi  2 , Dirk Lebelt  3 , Diana Stucke  4 , Giuliano Ravasio  1 , Fabrizio Ceciliani  1 , Michela Minero  1
Affiliations

Towards an improved pain assessment in castrated horses using facial expressions (HGS) and circulating miRNAs

Emanuela Dalla Costa et al. Vet Rec. 2021 May.

Abstract

Background: Pain in horses is an emergent welfare concern, and its assessment represents a challenge for equine clinicians. This study aimed at improving pain assessment in horses through a convergent validation of existing tools: we investigated whether an effective analgesic treatment influences the horse grimace scale (HGS) and the concentration of specific circulating microRNAs (miRNAs).

Methods: Eleven stallions underwent routine surgical castration under general anaesthesia. They were divided into two analgesic treatment groups: castration with the administration of preoperative flunixin and castration with preoperative flunixin plus a local injection of mepivacaine into the spermatic cords. HGS and levels of seven circulating miRNAs were evaluated pre-, 8 and 20 hours post-procedure.

Results: Compared to pre-castration, HGS, miR-126-5p, miR-145 and miR-let7e increased significantly in horses receiving flunixin at 8 hours post-castration (Friedman test, p < 0.05). Both behavioural and molecular changes occurred in horses receiving flunixin only, confirming that the addition of local mepivacaine is an effective analgesic treatment.

Conclusions: Combining the use of HGS and circulating miRNAs, particularly miR-145, could be meaningful to monitor acute pain conditions in horses. Our results further validate the HGS as a method to assess acute pain in horses and point out miR-145 as a promising biomarker to identify pain.

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References

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